11 


"HE 


ERKEL1Y 

BRARY 

DIVERSITY  OF 
lAUFORNIA 


THE   WORLD'S  EPOCH-MAKERS 


EDITED    BY 

OLIPHANT   SMEATON 


and 

The   Port  Royalists 

By  William  Clark,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  D.C.L.,  F.R.S.C. 


PREVIOUS  VOLUMES  IN  THIS  SERIES;— 

CRANMER  AND  THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION. 
By  A.  D.  INNES,  M.A. 

WESLEY  AND  METHODISM. 

By  F.  J.  SNELL,  M.A. 

LUTHER  AND   THE   GERMAN   REFORMATION. 
By  Prof.  T.  M.  LINDSAY,  D.D. 

BUDDHA  AND   BUDDHISM. 

By  ARTHUR  LILLIE. 

WILLIAM   HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK. 

By  JAMES  SIME,  M.A.,  F.R.S.E. 

FRANCIS  AND   DOMINIC. 

By  Prof.  J.  HERKLESS,  D.D. 

SAVONAROLA. 

By  Rev.  G.  M 'HARDY,  D.D. 

ANSELM  AND   HIS  WORK. 

By  Rev.  A.  C.  WELCH,  M.A.,  B.D. 

MUHAMMAD  AND   HIS   POWER. 

By  P.  DE  LACY  JOHNSTONE,  M.A.(Oxon.) 

ORIGEN  AND  GREEK  PATRISTIC  THEOLOGY. 
By  Rev.  WILLIAM  FAIRVVEATHER,  M.A. 

THE  MEDICI  AND  THE  ITALIAN  RENAISSANCE. 
By  OLIPHANT  SMEATON,  M.A. 

PLATO. 

By  Prof.  D.  G.  RITCHIE,  M.A.,  LL.D. 


THE   WORLD'S   EPOCH-MAKERS 


1  £LSC2U     and 


The  Port  Royalists 


By 

William  Clark,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  D.C.L.,  F.R.S.C. 


New  York.          Charles  Scribner's  Sons 
1902 


903 


PREFACE 


THE  question  has  often  been  raised  as  to  whether  men 
are  greater  than  their  works  or  the  reverse;  and  a 
common  opinion  answers  the  question  in  the  affirma- 
tive. An  eminent  French  writer  of  our  own  days1 
declares  that  the  reverse  of  this  is  true.  Almost  all 
men,  he  maintains,  are  worth  even  less  than  the  little 
which  they  do;  and  this,  he  says,  is  proved  by  the 
great  trouble  they  take  to  do  it.  Pascal,  however,  he 
says,  is  of  the  small  number  of  those  in  whom  the 
man  infinitely  transcends  his  actions.  The  writings 
of  Pascal,  he  continues,  are  the  finest  that  France 
possesses;  yet  they  contain  nothing  of  equal  value 
with  the  Life  of  Pascal  written  by  his  sister  in  a  few 
pages.  It  is  of  such  writings  and  of  such  a  life  that 
we  have  to  speak  in  this  volume;  and  it  is  of  un- 
speakable advantage  to  the  student  that  he  should 
possess  a  source  of  information  respecting  the  early 
days  of  Pascal  of  such  unquestionable  authority. 
Nearly  all  that  we  know  of  Pascal  is  derived  from 

1  M.  A.  Suares  in  the  Revue  den  deux  Mondes,  1st  July  1900. 

629 


VI 


PREFACE 


this  Life  and  from  his  own  writings,  and  especially 
from  the  Provincial  Letters  and  the  Thoughts.  These 
works  have  been  commented  upon,  controverted,  and 
defended ;  and  there  is  little  to  be  said  on  either  side 
which  has  not  been  said  already.  In  the  present 
volume  Pascal  chiefly  speaks  for  himself,  and  the 
comments  upon  his  statements  are  generally  brief. 
It  would  have  been  quite  easy  to  expand  them  to  a 
great  length.  When  we  are  dealing  with  such  subjects 
as  the  Augustinian  controversy  and  the  Defence  of  the 
Christian  Religion,  it  would  be  easier  to  write  pages 
than  lines.  In  this  respect  the  writer  has  endeavoured 
to  give  no  more  than  is  necessary  for  the  clearing  up 
of  such  points  as  may  not  be  plain  to  the  ordinary 
reader  for  whom  this  book  is  intended. 

Some  acknowledgment  should  be  made  of  the  debt 
owing  to  previous  labourers  in  the  same  field,  and 
first  to  the  editors  of  Pascal's  works.  I  have  used 
several  editions  of  the  Provincials,  but  special  men- 
tion should  be  made  of  that  of  the  Abbe  Maynard, 
of  the  excellent  edition  of  the  Rev.  John  de  Soyres, 
and  the  final  edition  of  M.  Faugere.  With  regard  to 
the  Thoughts,  the  obligations  of  all  students  to  M. 
Victor  Cousin  and  M.  Faugere  are  incalculable;  but 
the  editions  of  Molinier  and  Havet  also  deserve 
grateful  mention.  It  was  Molinier  who  first  gave  the 
whole  work  in  its  complete  and  perfect  form,  and 
Havet  has  arranged  the  material  thus  prepared  in  the 
most  convenient  form.  The  great  work  on  Port  Royal 


PREFACE  vii 

by  M.  Sainte  Beuve  is  too  well  known  and  too  highly 
esteemed  to  require  more  than  this  mention. 

The  greatness  of  Pascal  lifts  him  above  all  ordinary 
expressions  of  praise  or  admiration.  He  towers  above 
all  save  the  very  greatest  of  the  sons  of  men.  It 
will  be  a  source  of  satisfaction  to  the  present  writer 
if  he  shall  have  helped  to  make  the  immortal  writings 
of  this  great  genius  known  to  some  who  were  pre- 
viously unacquainted  with  them. 


WILLIAM   CLARK. 


TRINITY  COLLEGE,  TORONTO, 
Michaelmas,  1902. 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  PAOK 

PREFACE     V 

I.    EARLY   DAYS 1 

II.    SCIENTIFIC   WORK 12 

III.    SPIRITUAL   LIFE 30 

IV.    PORT   ROYAL 57 

V.    THE   PROVINCIAL  LETTERS 73 

VI.    LATER  YEARS       .            . 139 

VII.    THE   THOUGHTS 157 

VIII.    DESTRUCTION   OF   PORT   ROYAL 227 

INDEX                                                                                                                   .  233 


PASCAL 

CHAPTER  I 
EARLY  DAYS 

BLAISE  PASCAL  was  born  at  Clermont-Ferrand,  on  the 
19th  of  June  1623,  in  what  was  then  the  Province  of 
Auvergne,  and  is  now  the  Department  of  Puy-de- 
Dome.  He  was  the  son  of  fitienne  Pascal,  second 
president  of  the  Court  of  Aids  of  Montferrand,  whose 
ancestor,  bearing  the  same  name,  had  been  ennobled 
by  Louis  xi.  in  1478,  although  the  family  made  no  use 
of  the  rank  thus  accorded  to  them.  In  the  year  1618 
fitienne  Pascal  married  Antoinette  Be'gon,  a  woman 
distinguished  alike  by  her  piety  and  her  intelligence. 
She  bore  him  four  children,  three  of  whom  survived, 
Gilberte,  the  future  Madame  Perier,  born  in  1620 ; 
Blaise,  three  years  younger,  born  in  1623;  and 
Jacqueline  (sometimes  called  Jacquette),  born  in  1625. 
The  mother  of  Pascal,  according  to  Madame  Pe*rier, 
died  when  he  was  three  years  old  (1626);  and  his 
father,  finding  himself  alone,  applied  himself  more 
earnestly  to  the  care  of  his  family ;  and,  since  he  had 
no  other  son  than  Blaise,  for  this  reason,  and  because 
i 


2  PASCAL 

of  the  evidences  of  high  intelligence  which  he  recog- 
nised in  him,  he  could  not  bring  himself  to  commit  his 
education  to  any  other,  but  resolved  to  carry  it  on 
himself;  which  he  did,  being  thoroughly  qualified,  as 
a  mathematician  and  a  natural  philosopher,  for  such 
work. 

In  1631  fitienne  Pascal  sold  his  office,  left  Clermont, 
and  removed  to  Paris,  in  order  to  give  himself  up  to 
the  education  of  his  children.  There  he  became 
acquainted  with  the  family  of  the  celebrated  advocate, 
Antoine  Arnauld,  the  deadly  enemy  of  the  Jesuits, 
who  had  died  in  1619.  Of  Antoine  Arnauld's  twenty 
children,  ten  remained.  Of  them  Arnauld  d'Andilly 
was  the  eldest,  and  Antoine  Arnauld,  the  theologian, — 
known  as  the  great  Arnauld, — born  in  1612,  was  the 
youngest. 

fitienne  Pascal  entered  upon  the  education  of  his 
children  in  the  most  regular  and  systematic  manner, 
and  with  extraordinary  devotion.  A  leading  maxim 
with  him,  says  Madame  PeYier,  was  to  keep  his  son 
well  ahead  of  his  work;  and  it  was  for  this  reason 
that  he  would  not  begin  to  teach  him  Latin  until  he 
was  twelve  years  old.  During  this  interval,  however, 
Blaise  did  not  remain  idle,  for  he  was  instructed  in  all 
the  subjects  which  he  could  easily  master.  In  parti- 
cular, his  father  taught  him  the  nature  of  languages  in 
general,  and  pointed  out  how  they  had  been  reduced 
to  grammars  and  rules;  and  how  these  rules  had 
exceptions  which  had  to  be  noted.  By  this  means 
his  intelligence  was  exercised,  so  that  he  came  to 
understand  the  principles  upon  which  the  rules  of 
grammar  were  based,  so  as  to  facilitate  his  under- 
standing of  them  in  particular  cases, 


EARLY  DAYS  3 

From  these  beginnings  his  father  proceeded  to 
instruct  him  in  the  phenomena  of  nature,  such  as  the 
force  of  powder  in  a  gun.  Pascal  took  great  pleasure 
in  these  studies;  but  he  was  never  satisfied  until  he 
could  learn  the  reasons  of  things;  and  when  these 
were  not  known,  or  his  father  did  not  explain  them, 
or  when  the  ordinary  explanations  seemed  to  him 
evasions,  he  was  not  satisfied,  for  he  always  displayed 
an  admirable  keenness  of  mind  in  detecting  whatever 
was  false;  and  one  might  say  that  always  and  in 
everything,  truth  was  the  sole  object  of  his  inquiries, 
since  nothing  short  of  the  knowledge  of  the  truth 
could  yield  him  satisfaction.  Thus  from  his  infancy 
he  could  give  himself  up  to  nothing  which  did  not 
seem  to  him  evidently  true;  so  that  when  others 
failed  to  give  him  good  reasons,  he  sought  for  them 
himself ;  and  when  he  had  once  taken  hold  of  a  thing, 
he  did  not  let  it  go  until  he  found  an  explanation 
which  satisfied  him.  An  example  of  this  is  given, 
when  some  one  struck  a  plate  with  a  knife  on  the 
table.  He  remarked  that  the  plate  emitted  a  loud 
sound ;  but  that  as  soon  as  a  hand  was  laid  upon  it, 
the  sound  ceased.  In  examining  into  the  reasons,  he 
was  led  to  make  various  other  experiments  on  sounds. 
By  this  means,  when  he  was  only  twelve  years  of  age, 
he  discovered  many  things  which  he  embodied  in  a 
treatise  which  was  found  to  be  quite  well  reasoned. 
His  astonishing  genius  in  geometry  made  its  appear- 
ance, when  he  was  only  twelve  years  of  age,  in  a 
manner  so  remarkable  that  his  sister  dwells  upon  the 
incident  with  peculiar  emphasis.  Their  father,  she 
says,  was  a  man  learned  in  mathematics,  and  had 
frequent  intercourse  with  many  who  were  accomplished 


4  PASCAL 

in  that  science.  But,  as  he  purposed  to  instruct  Blaise 
in  languages,  and  as  he  knew  that  mathematics  is  a 
science  which  fills  and  greatly  satisfies  the  mind,  he 
wished  that  his  son  should  have  no  knowledge  of  it, 
for  fear  of  its  leading  him  to  neglect  his  Latin-  and 
other  languages  in  which  he  wished  to  perfect  him. 
For  this  reason  he  had  put  away  all  the  books  that 
treated  of  this  subject,  and  he  abstained  from  referring 
to  it  with  his  friends  in  his  son's  presence. 

This  precaution,  however,  did  not  prevent  the  child's 
curiosity  from  being  excited,  so  that  he  often  asked 
his  father  to  give  him  instructions  in  mathematics. 
His  father  refused,  promising  that,  when  he  knew  Latin 
and  Greek,  he  should  be  taught  mathematics  as  a 
reward.  The  boy,  noting  this  resistance,  asked  him 
one  day  what  was  the  nature  of  this  science,  and  of 
what  it  treated.  His  father  told  him  in  general  that 
it  was  the  means  of  making  figures  rightly,  and  of 
discovering  their  relative  proportions ;  and  at  the  same 
time  he  desired  him  not  to  speak  or  think  more  of  the 
subject.  But  the  mind  of  Pascal  was  one  which  could 
not  be  kept  within  bounds,  having  learnt  that  mathe- 
matics determined  infallibly  the  relations  of  figures; 
and  so,  in  his  hours  of  recreation,  he  set  himself  to 
meditate  on  that  statement ;  and  being  alone  in  a  room 
in  which  he  had  been  accustomed  to  take  recreation,  he 
took  a  piece  of  charcoal  and  made  some  figures  on 
boards,  trying,  for  example,  to  make  a  circle  perfectly 
round,  a  triangle  of  which  the  sides  and  the  angles 
were  equal,  and  other  things  of  the  same  kind.  All 
this  he  accomplished  by  himself  alone,  and  then  he 
examined  the  proportions  of  the  figures  among  them- 
selves. But  as  his  father  had  taken  so  great  care  to 


EARLY  DAYS  5 

conceal  all  these  things  from  him,  he  did  not  know 
even  the  names  of  the  figures.  He  was  thus  under  the 
necessity  of  making  definitions  for  himself.  He  called 
a  circle  a  round,  a  line  a  bar,  and  so  with  the  others. 
After  these  definitions  he  made  axioms,  and  finally 
complete  demonstrations;  and  as,  in  these  things,  we 
go  from  one  thing  to  another,  he  pushed  his  researches 
so  far  forward  that  he  came  to  the  thirty-second 
proposition  of  the  first  book  of  Euclid.1 

Whilst  Pascal  was  occupied  in  this  work,  his  father 
came  into  the  room  without  being  heard.  In  fact,  his 
son  was  so  engrossed  in  his  study  that  it  was  some 
time  before  he  became  aware  of  his  father's  presence. 
It  would  not  be  easy  to  say  which  was  the  more 
surprised,  the  son  to  see  his  father,  who  had  forbidden 
these  studies,  or  the  father  to  see  his  son  engrossed  in 
them.  But  the  surprise  of  the  father  was  still  greater 
when,  after  asking  the  boy  what  he  was  doing,  he  was 
told  that  he  was  engaged  in  a  problem  which  formed 
the  thirty-second  proposition  of  the  first  book  of  Euclid. 
His  father  asked  him  what  had  led  him  to  these 
investigations.  He  said  it  was  because  he  had  dis- 
covered certain  other  things ;  and  when  he  was  asked 
how  he  had  arrived  at  these,  he  told  him  of  certain 
demonstrations  which  he  had  made ;  and  so  on,  going 
back  and  explaining  by  the  names  of  the  "  round  "  and 
the  "  bar,"  he  came  to  his  definitions  and  his  axioms. 

His  father  was  so  startled  at  the  greatness  of  the 
genius  thus  displayed  that  he  left  him  without  saying 
a  word,  and  went  to  see  M.  Le  Pailleur,  who  was  his 

1  The  exterior  angle  of  a  triangle  is  equal  to  the  two  interior  and 
opposite  angles  ;  and  the  three  interior  angles  are  together  equal  to  two 
right  angles. 


6  PASCAL 

intimate  friend,  and  a  man  of  great  learning.  When 
he  came  to  him  he  remained  immovable,  like  a  man  in 
a  transport.  M.  Le  Pailleur  noting  this,  and  also  that 
he  was  shedding  tears,  was  alarmed,  and  implored  him 
no  longer  to  conceal  the  cause  of  his  trouble.  He 
replied,  "I  am  not  weeping  from  sorrow,  but  from 
joy.  You  know  the  care  that  I  have  taken  to  keep 
from  my  son  the  knowledge  of  geometry,  for  fear  of 
diverting  him  from  his  other  studies.  But  see  what 
he  has  done ! "  and  then  he  showed  him  all  that  he  had 
discovered;  so  that  one  might  say  that,  in  a  certain 
sense,  his  son  had  invented  mathematics.  M.  Le 
Pailleur  was  no  less  surprised  than  the  father  of  Pascal 
had  been,  and  told  him  that  he  did  not  think  it  fair 
to  restrain  such  a  mind  further,  and  to  conceal  this 
knowledge  from  him,  and  that  now  he  ought  to  be 
allowed  to  see  the  books  without  further  restraint. 

After  this  his  father  gave  him  Euclid's  Elements  to 
study  in  his  hours  of  recreation.  He  read  them  and 
understood  them  entirely  by  himself,  without  having 
any  need  of  explanation.  And  not  only  did  he  continue 
his  studies  in  private;  he  also  took  part  in  certain 
conferences,  held  in  the  house  of  Father  Mersenne, 
which  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences, 
established  in  1666,  four  years  after  the  death  of  Pascal. 
But  before  this  time  it  seems  to  have  taken  the  name 
of  Academy,  since  Pascal,  as  early  as  1654,  presented 
to  it  two  Latin  treatises  on  mathematics  addressed, 
"  Celeberrimae  Matheseos  Academiae  Parisiensi."  In 
these  conferences  Pascal  took  a  leading  part,  both  in 
criticism  and  in  production.  Often  there  were  con- 
tributions examined  from  Italy,  Germany,  and  other 
foreign  countries;  and  his  judgments  were  carefully 


EARLY  DAYS  7 

considered  by  the  others  as  of  no  less  importance  than 
those  of  his  seniors ;  for  he  had  such  clear  insight  that 
he  often  discovered  mistakes  which  the  others  had 
overlooked.  Yet  he  employed  in  this  study  of 
geometry  only  his  hours  of  recreation,  for  he  learned 
Latin  by  the  rules  which  his  father  had  made  on 
purpose  for  him.  But  as  he  found  in  this  science  the 
truth  which  he  had  so  evidently  sought  for,  he  was  so 
satisfied  with  it,  that  he  gave  his  whole  mind  to  it ;  so 
that,  in  spite  of  his  giving  but  little  time  to  this  study, 
he  made  such  progress  in  it  that  at  the  age  of  sixteen 
he  composed  a  treatise  on  Conic  Sections  which  seemed 
such  a  great  intellectual  effort  that  it  was  said  to  be 
the  most  powerful  work  since  the  days  of  Archimedes. 
Among  those  who  took  part  in  these  conferences 
were  such  names  as  Roberval,  Carcavi,  Le  Pailleur, 
Mydorge,  Hardy,  Desargues,  all  men  of  high  attain- 
ments in  various  branches  of  natural  science,  and 
especially  in  mathematics.  There  was  a  general  desire 
among  these  savants  that  Pascal  should  publish  his 
treatise  on  Conic  Sections,  as  they  wished  that  so 
surprising  a  work  by  one  so  young  should  not  be 
unknown.  It  is  said  that  the  work  excited  the  mingled 
admiration  and  incredulity  of  Descartes.  It  would 
seem  that  the  incredulity  preponderated,  and  that 
Descartes  bore  somewhat  grudging  testimony  to  the 
achievement  of  Pascal,  and  even  suggested  that  he  was 
more  indebted  to  his  predecessors  than  he  was  willing 
to  confess.  His  other  fellow  -  workers  were  more 
generous,  and  urged  the  publication  of  his  treatise. 
Pascal,  however,  seems  to  have  cared  comparatively 
little  for  the  fame  that  might  accrue  to  him.  He 
promised  to  give  certain  treatises  to  the  public ;  and 


8  PASCAL 

after  his  death  some  were  found  ready  for  publication ; 
but  they  were  not  published,  and  they  are  now  lost. 
In  a  paper  which  was  prepared,  Pascal  declared  that 
the  first  discoverer  of  much  that  he  put  forth  was 
"  M.  Desargues,  one  of  the  great  minds  of  this  time, 
and  one  of  the  most  versed  in  mathematics,  and 
particularly  in  conic  sections.  ...  I  must  confess,"  he 
goes  on,  "  that  I  owe  the  little  which  I  have  discovered 
on  this  subject  to  his  writings;  and  that  I  have 
endeavoured,  as  far  as  I  could,  to  imitate  his  method 
on  this  subject."  If  the  appreciation  of  Descartes 
was  grudging,  it  was  otherwise  with  Leibnitz,  who  per- 
used Pascal's  manuscript  in  1676,  and  expressed  an 
enthusiastic  admiration  of  the  ability  there  displayed. 

It  has  been  mentioned  that  Pascal's  father  removed 
to  Paris  when  his  son  was  seven  years  of  age.  Some 
years  after  settling  there,  the  family  were  called  to 
endure  a  great  misfortune,  fitienne  Pascal  had 
invested  his  savings  in  bonds  of  the  H6tel  de  Ville. 
In  order  to  provide  for  the  necessities  of  the  Govern- 
ment, Richelieu  reduced  the  interest  on  these  bonds, 
which  led  to  earnest  protests  from  the  investors, 
Pascal's  father  among  the  rest.  The  meeting  at  which 
they  assembled  was  declared  to  be  seditious ;  and,  to 
escape  the  Bastille,  he  first  went  into  concealment  in 
Paris,  and  subsequently  fled  into  the  country.  He  was 
thus  cut  off  from  his  friends,  and  from  his  family,  whom 
he  was  able  to  see  only  at  intervals.  By  what  might 
seem  a  strange  accident  the  family  recovered  the  favour 
of  the  great  Cardinal.  In  the  year  1639  he  determined 
to  have  Scudery's  play  of  L' Amour  Tyrannique  acted 
by  girls.  Among  those  who  were  induced  to  take 
part  in  the  performance  was  Pascal's  younger  sister 


EARLY  DAYS  9 

Jacqueline,  then  thirteen  years  of  age,  who  seems  to 
have  possessed  considerable  dramatic  gifts.  The 
Cardinal  was  so  charmed  by  her  acting,  that  he  allowed 
her  to  present  a  petition  on  behalf  of  her  father.  The 
incident  is  described  in  a  letter  from  Jacqueline  to  her 
father,  in  which  she  mentions  that  the  Cardinal  had 
been  made  acquainted  with  the  truth  of  the  matter, 
and  had  learnt  that  her  father  had  been  guilty  of  no 
offence  against  the  Government;  and  she  goes  on  to 
describe  her  interview  with  Richelieu,  and  his  decision 
that  her  father  might  return.  The  appeal  of  Jacque- 
line, she  tells  her  father,  was  enforced  by  Madame 
d'Aiguillon,  who  not  only  spoke  in  high  terms  of  her 
father,  but  informed  the  Cardinal  of  the  great  gifts  of 
her  brother. 

This  letter  was  written  on  4th  April  1639,  and  it 
shows  us  that  the  gifts  of  her  brother  were  already 
widely  recognised.  The  father  availed  himself  at 
once  of  the  permission  to  return,  immediately  pre- 
sented himself  to  Richelieu,  and  received  from  him 
the  assurance  that  something  should  be  done  for  him 
without  delay.  This  promise  was  kept,  since  shortly 
afterwards  he  was  appointed  Intendant  of  Rouen,  and 
settled  in  that  city  in  1641.  In  this  same  year  his  elder 
daughter,  Gilberte,  was  married  to  her  cousin,  Florin 
Pdrier;  and  two  years  afterwards  removed  with  him 
to  Clermont,  where  he  had  been  appointed  a  counsellor 
in  the  Court  of  Aids.  At  Rouen  the  family  became 
intimate  with  Corneille,  who  was  a  native  of  that  city, 
and  had  recently  returned  thither.  Everything  appears 
to  have  now  gone  well  with  the  family,  except  that 
Blaise,  through  the  closeness  of  his  devotion  to  his 
studies,  seems  already  to  have  seriously  injured  his 


io  PASCAL 

health,  which  was  never  robust.  His  sister  says  that 
he  developed  infirmities  about  this  time  which  never 
left  him,  so  that  he  used  to  say  that,  from  the  age  of 
eighteen,  he  had  not  passed  a  single  day  without  pain. 
These  infirmities,  however,  she  adds,  were  not  always 
equally  painful,  and  whenever  he  had  a  short  respite 
from  pain,  his  mind  ever  turned  to  new  investigations. 
It  was  at  this  time,  when  he  was  twenty-three  years  of 
age,  that  he  took  up  and  carried  on  the  experiments 
of  Torricelli,  of  which  more  hereafter.  It  has  been 
remarked  that  his  mathematical  and  scientific  studies 
were  carried  on  mostly  in  his  hours  of  recreation,  and 
his  literary  education  was  certainly  not  neglected. 
He  obtained  a  sufficient  acquaintance  with  Latin,  which 
he  could  read  and  write  without  difficulty,  whilst  his 
knowledge  of  Greek  enabled  him  at  least  to  verify  the 
translations  from  that  language.  He  could  also  read 
Italian.  It  would  appear  that  his  father  did  not  assist 
him  in  the  study  of  ancient  and  modern  literature,  of 
which,  however,  he  obtained  a  considerable  knowledge 
by  his  subsequent  studies,  although  he  was  never  an 
extensive  reader.  With  theology  and  philosophy  he 
had  only  a  very  general  acquaintance. 

It  would  seem  that  religion  formed  no  part  of  the 
system  of  education  planned  for  Pascal  by  his  father. 
It  was  not  that  he  differed  from  the  doctrines  of  the 
Church.  In  habit  and  in  practice  he  was  a  devout 
believer.  But  he  seems  to  have  shrunk  from  anything 
like  philosophising  in  religion,  from  the  introduction 
of  metaphysic  into  theology.  In  a  practical  way  he 
united,  and  taught  his  children  to  unite,  the  common 
life  of  persons  living  in  the  world  with  the  practice  of 
religion. 


EARLY  DAYS  n 

During  his  time  as  Intendant  at  Rouen,  Etienne 
Pascal  discharged  faithfully  the  duties  of  his  office,  and 
gained  the  friendship  and  respect  of  those  around  him. 
His  work  was  by  no  means  an  easy  one,  in  consequence 
of  recent  troubles  in  Normandy ;  but  his  integrity  and 
devotion  commanded  confidence  and  respect,  whilst  he 
advanced  the  fortunes  of  his  family  by  all  legitimate 
means.  It  was  in  such  an  environment  that  young 
Pascal  grew  up  to  manhood. 


CHAPTER  II 
SCIENTIFIC  WORK 

IT  may  be  convenient  here  to  bring  together  some  brief 
notes  on  the  work  of  Pascal  in  mathematics  and 
physical  science,  which,  although  inadequate  and  in- 
complete, may  suffice  for  our  present  purpose.  It  was 
during  the  residence  of  the  family  at  Rouen  that  the 
principal  part  of  Pascal's  work  in  science  was  accom- 
plished. Reference  has  already  been  made  to  his  dis- 
covery of  the  thirty-two  propositions  of  the  first  book 
of  Euclid  at  the  age  of  twelve,  and  to  his  treatise  on 
Conic  Sections  when  he  was  sixteen.  We  have  also 
mentioned  the  part  which  he  took  in  the  discussions 
of  the  "  Academy." 

We  have  mentioned  that  Pascal  did  not  publish  his 
treatise  on  Conic  Sections;  but  an  abstract  of  this 
treatise,  bearing  the  date  1640,  when  Pascal  was  seven- 
teen, still  exists.  With  his  usual  modesty  he  explains 
that  he  keeps  back  several  of  his  discoveries  until  they 
have  been  examined  by  men  of  ability.  "  The  method 
which  he  followed  was  that  introduced  by  his  con- 
temporary Desargues,  namely,  the  transformation  of 
geometrical  figures  by  conical  or  optical  projection. 
In  this  way  he  established  the  famous  theorem,  that 

the  intersections  of  the  three  pairs  of  opposite  sides 

12 


SCIENTIFIC  WORK  13 

of  a  hexagon  inscribed  in  a  conic  are  collinear.  This 
proposition,  which  he  called  the  mystic  hexagram,  he 
made  the  keystone  of  his  theory;  from  it  alone  he 
deduced  more  than  four  hundred  corollaries,  embracing, 
according  to  his  own  account,  the  conies  of  Apollonius, 
and  other  results  innumerable." l  Not  long  after  this 
he  invented  a  calculating  machine ;  but  the  practical 
difficulties  connected  with  the  construction  of  the 
machine  prevented  its  coming  to  be  of  any  practical 
use ;  and  this  seems  to  have  been  the  fate  of  all  similar 
inventions,  however  promising. 

By  that  which  appeared  an  accident  the  attention 
of  Pascal  was  drawn  to  a  matter  of  greater  importance. 
In  October  1646  the  family  received  a  visit  from 
M.  Petit,  a  disciple  of  Descartes,  who  gave  them  an 
account  of  experiments  recently  made  in  Italy  on 
the  maxim  that  "  Nature  abhors  a  vacuum."  It  was 
a  subject  which  had  seriously  occupied  the  attention 
of  Galileo  and  his  pupil  Torricelli.  It  was  by  the 
latter  that  the  suggestion  was  made  which  it  was 
left  for  Pascal  to  verify  by  experiment.  In  order  to 
ascertain  what  might  be  learnt  from  nature,  he  tried 
experiments  with  different  kinds  of  liquids,  water, 
oil,  wine,  etc.,  and  with  tubes  of  different  sizes;  and 
he  performed  the  experiments  in  presence  of  many 
persons  in  order  to  call  forth  criticisms  and  objections. 
Pascal  was  satisfied  with  the  result  of  his  experiments 
as  far  as  they  went,  and  drew  certain  conclusions  from 
them.  He  mentions  that  among  the  four  or  five 
hundred  people  of  all  classes  who  witnessed  them, 
there  were  five  or  six  Jesuit  fathers  of  the  College  of 
Kouen. 

1  Professor  Chrystal  in  Ency.  Brit.  (ed.  9),  vol.  xviii.  p.  338. 


14  PASCAL 

Naturally  the  scientific  world  became  greatly  excited 
over  these  experiments,  some  recognising  their  import- 
ance, and  others  denying  to  Pascal  all  credit  in  con- 
nection with  them.  In  order  to  show  clearly  his 
own  share  in  the  investigation,  Pascal  put  forth,  4th 
October  1647,  a  narrative  under  the  title  of  Nouvelles 
experiences  touchant  le  Vide.  He  concluded — (1) 
that  Nature  abhors  a  vacuum,  although  it  is  false  to 
say  that  it  cannot  tolerate  a  vacuum  in  any  degree ; 
(2)j  this  abhorrence  is  not  as  strong  for  a  great  vacuum 
as  for  a  small ;  (3)  the  power  of  this  vacuum  is  limited. 
Pascal  at  that  time  went  no  further  in  regard  to  the 
conclusions  which  he  drew  from  his  experiments. 
These  conclusions,  however,  were  not  unimportant, 
seeing  that  they  establish  the  fact,  declared  impossible 
by  Aristotle,  that  a  void  was  actually  found ;  a  doctrine 
unpleasant  to  believers,  because  atheists  frequently 
had  recourse  to  it  in  order  to  explain  the  fact  of 
movement  without  having  recourse  to  God. 

With  regard  to  the  claims  of  Pascal  in  connection 
with  these  experiments  two  things  are  to  be  said  : 
first,  that  he  laid  no  claim  to  the  origination  of  these 
experiments,  which,  he  explains,  had  been  made  in  Italy 
four  years  before.  Moreover,  he  was  so  far  from'either 
denying  the  claims  of  Torricelli,  or  owing  anything  to 
his  investigations,  that  he  was  actually  unacquainted 
with  the  explanation  which  he  had  suggested.  Pascal's 
conclusions  speedily  found  critics  and  objectors;  and 
prominent  among  them  was  Father  Noel,  the  Jesuit. 
We  have  here  probably  an  explanation  of  two  circum- 
stances in  the  life  of  Pascal,  his  coldness  with  Descartes, 
and  his  lifelong  opposition  to  the  Company  of  Jesus. 
Father  Noel  in  his  criticism  had  drawn  arguments 


SCIENTIFIC  WORK  15 

from  Descartes  in  support  of  his  positions ;  and  Pascal, 
without  naming  the  great  philosopher,  criticised  some 
of  his  methods.  On  the  other  hand,  it  has  been 
suggested,  with  some  probability,  that  the  Jesuits 
may  in  after  days  have  remembered  that  Pascal  was 
an  old  adversary,  and  that  he  may  have  learnt  in  this 
controversy  something  of  the  contempt  which  he 
showed  for  them  in  his  letters. 

In  his  reply  to  Father  Noel,  Pascal  defines  the  limits 
of  science  and  faith.  "In  that  which  concerns  the 
sciences,  he  says,  we  believe  only  our  senses  and  our 
reason.  We  reserve  for  the  mysteries  of  the  faith 
which  the  Holy  Spirit  has  revealed  that  submission 
which  asks  for  no  sensible  or  rational  proof.  But 
you,  in  your  fancy,  imagine  a  matter  of  which  you 
suppose  the  qualities,  a  subtle  air  which  has  inclina- 
tions. And  if  you  are  asked  to  show  it,  you  answer 
that  it  is  not  visible.  Your  hypotheses  satisfy  you; 
and  we  are  to  take  that  for  demonstration.  You  give, 
too,  terms  which  you  employ,  and  definitions  of  which 
the  term  to  be  defined  supplies  all  the  contents.1  It  is 
in  this  way  that  you  define  Light :  '  A  luminary  move- 
ment of  rays  composed  of  lucid  bodies,  that  is  to  say, 
luminous/  That  is  a  definition  to  which,  having 
regard  to  the  conditions  of  a  true  definition,  I  should 
find  a  difficulty  in  accustoming  myself.  Such,  father, 
are  my  sentiments,  which  I  shall  always  submit  to 
yours. " 

The  controversy  was  continued  for  some  time  with- 
out much  result,  with  delicate  irony  on  the  part  of 
Pascal,  with  something  like  insolence  on  the  part  of 
Father  Noel.  At  last  fitienne  Pascal  comes  in  and 
1  What  we  should  call  verbal  or  analytical  definitions. 


1 6  PASCAL 

administers  to  the  good  father  a  brotherly  admoni- 
tion. "  When  you  are  at  a  loss  for  argument,"  he  says, 
"  you  have  recourse  to  insult.  Now,  you  must  know 
that  it  is  a  general  maxim  of  civilised  society  that 
neither  age,  nor  condition,  nor  position,  nor  office  can 
give  a  man  the  right  to  hurl  invectives  at  anyone." 
By  degrees  Pascal  came  to  see  further  into  the 

t/  O 

question  under  discussion,  and  in  the  month  of 
November  1647 — he  was  then  only  twenty-four — he 
began  to  discern  a  new  meaning  in  the  experiment 
of  Torricelli.  He  began  to  ask  himself  not  merely 
whether  the  space  above  the  mercury  is  really  void, 
but  what  is  the  cause  that  keeps  the  column  of 
mercury  in  suspense.  Galileo  had  demonstrated  that 
the  air  is  heavy.  Torricelli  had  suggested  the  idea  that 
the  weight  of  the  air  might  be  the  cause  of  the 
phenomenon  which  -he  had  discovered.  Pascal  had 
now  become  acquainted  with  this  idea  of  Torricelli, 
and  pointed  out  that  it  was  only  an  idea,  a  possible 
explanation,  an  hypothesis,  whilst  the  experiment  had 
not  proved  that  another  explanation  was  impossible. 
It  was  therefore  necessary  to  try  another  experiment, 
in  order  to  show  that  the  weight  of  the  air  was  the 
sole  admissible  cause  of  the  suspension  of  the  mercury 
in  the  tube. 

Pascal  saw  clearly  what  must  be  the  nature  of  the 
experiment  that  should  settle  this  controversy.  The 
experiment  must  be  repeated  several  times  in  one  day 
with  the  same  quicksilver,  in  the  same  tube,  at  one 
time  at  the  foot,  at  another  at  the  top  of  a  high 
mountain.  If  it  should  happen  that  the  quicksilver 
should  stand  lower  at  the  top  than  at  the  foot  of 
the  mountain,  it  would  follow  necessarily  that  the 


SCIENTIFIC  WORK  17 

weight  and  pressure  of  the  air  is  the  sole  cause  of 
this  suspension  of  the  quicksilver,  and  not  the 
abhorrence  of  the  vacuum,  since  it  is  quite  certain  that 
there  is  much  more  weight  of  air  at  the  foot  of  the 
mountain  than  at  the  summit,  whilst  it  could  not 
be  contended  that  Nature  abhors  a  vacuum  at  the  foot 
of  a  mountain  more  than  at  the  top. 

Pascal  saw  no  opportunity  of  testing  the  principle 
in  Normandy,  and  naturally  thought  of  the  Puy-de- 
Dome,  which  rises,  near  his  old  birthplace  in  Auvergne, 
to  the  height  of  3000  feet.  Being  unable,  through 
the  state  of  his  health,  to  conduct  the  experiment 
personally,  he  wrote  to  his  brother-in-law,  M.  Perier, 
16th  November  1647,  asking  him  to  carry  it  out,  and 
explaining  to  him  the  necessary  process.  Various 
circumstances  intervened  to  hinder  compliance  with 
his  request ;  but  at  last  the  experiment  was  tried  19th 
September  1648,  and  with  completely  satisfactory 
results,  which  were  immediately  communicated  to 
Pascal.  Pascal  tried  the  same  experiment  at  the 
base  and  at  the  top  of  the  tower  of  St.  Jacques  in 
Paris,  and  then  in  a  private  house,  and  always  with 
the  same  results.  It  was  found  in  each  case,  in 
Auvergne  and  in  Paris,  that  the  column  of  quicksilver 
fell  in  proportion  as  they  rose  from  the  ground. 

Sir  David  Brewster1  has  given  an  account  of  the 
experiment,  taken  almost  literally  from  the  letter  of 
Perier  to  Pascal;  and  some  extracts  from  this  letter 
may  suffice:  "On  the  morning  of  Saturday  the  19th 
September,  the  day  fixed  for  the  interesting  observation, 
the  weather  was  unsettled ;  but  about  five  o'clock  the 
summit  of  the  Puy-de-D6me  began  to  appear  through  the 

1  North  British  Review,  August  1844. 
2 


I 8  PASCAL 

clouds,  and  Perier  resolved  to  proceed  with  the  experi- 
ment. ...  He  accordingly  summoned  his  friends,  and 
at  eight  in  the  morning  there  assembled  in  the  gardens 
of  the  Peres  Minimes,  about  a  league  below  the  town, 
M.  Bannier  of  the  Peres  Minimes ;  M.  Mosnier,  canon  of 
the  Cathedral  Church ;  along  with  Messrs,  la  Ville  and 
Begon,  counsellors  of  the  Court  of  Aids,  and  M.  la 
Porte,  doctor  and  professor  of  medicine  in  Clermont. 
These  five  individuals  were  not  only  distinguished  in 
their  respective  professions,  but  also  by  their  scientific 
acquirements;  and  M.  Perier  expresses  his  delight  at 
having  been  on  this  occasion  associated  with  them. 

"M.  Perier  began  the  experiment  by  pouring  into 
a  vessel  16  Ib.  of  quicksilver,  which  he  had  rectified 
during  the  three  preceding  days.  He  then  took  two 
glass  tubes,  4  feet  long,  of  the  same  bore,  hermetically 
sealed  at  one  end  and  open  at  the  other ;  and  making 
the  ordinary  experiment  of  a  vacuum  with  both,  he 
found  that  the  mercury  stood  in  each  of  them  at  the 
same  level,  and  at  the  height  of  26  inches  3J  lines. 
This  experiment  was  repeated  twice  with  the  same 
result.  One  of  these  glass  tubes,  with  the  mercury 
standing  in  it,  was  left  under  the  care  of  M.  Chastin, 
one  of  the  religious  of  the  House,  who  undertook  to 
observe  and  mark  any  changes  in  it  that  might  take 
place  during  the  day;  and  the  party  already  named 
set  out  with  the  other  tube  for  the  summit  of  the  Puy- 
de-D6me,  about  3000  feet1  above  their  first  station. 
Before  arriving  there,  they  found  that  the  mercury 
stood  at  the  height  of  23  inches  and  2  lines — no  less 
than  3  inches  and  1^  lines  lower  than  it  stood  at  the 
Minimes.  The  party  'were  struck  with  admiration 

1  500  toises,  a  toise  being  about  6  feet. 


SCIENTIFIC  WORK  19 

and  astonishment  at  this  result';  and  'so  great  was 
their  surprise  that  they  resolved  to  repeat  the  experi- 
ment under  various  forms.' 

"  The  glass  tube,  or  the  barometer,  as  we  may  call  it, 
was  placed  in  various  positions  on  the  summit  of  the 
mountain — sometimes  in  the  small  chapel  which  is 
there ;  sometimes  in  an  exposed,  and  sometimes  in  a 
sheltered  position ;  sometimes  when  the  wind  blew,  and 
sometimes  when  it  was  calm ;  sometimes  in  rain,  and 
sometimes  in  a  fog;  and  under  all  these  various 
influences,  which  fortunately  took  place  during  the 
same  day,  the  quicksilver  stood  at  the  same  height  of 
23  inches  2  lines.  During  their  descent  of  the  moun- 
tain they  repeated  the  experiment  at  Lafon-de-1'Arbe, 
an  intermediate  station,  nearer  the  Minimes  than  the 
summit  of  the  Puy,  'and  they  found  the  mercury  to 
stand  at  the  height  of  25  inches — a  result  with  which 
the  party  was  greatly  pleased,'  as  indicating  the  relation 
between  the  height  of  the  mercury  and  the  height  of 
the  station.  Upon  reaching  the  Minimes  they  found 
that  the  mercury  had  not  changed  its  height,  notwith- 
standing the  inconstancy  of  the  weather,  which  had 
been  alternately  clear,  windy,  rainy,  and  foggy.  M. 
Perier  repeated  the  experiments  with  both  the  glass 
tubes,  and  found  the  height  of  the  mercury  to  be  still 
26  inches  3J  lines.  On  the  following  morning  M. 
de  la  Marc,  priest  of  the  Oratory,  to  whom  M.  Perier 
had  mentioned  the  preceding  results,  proposed  to  have 
the  experiment  repeated  at  the  top  and  bottom  of  the 
towers  of  Notre  Dame  in  Clermont.  He  accordingly 
yielded  to  his  request,  and  found  the  difference  to  be 
2  lines. 

"  When  Pascal  received  these  results,  all  the  difficulties 


20  PASCAL 

were  removed ;  and  perceiving  from  the  last  two  obser- 
vations .  .  .  that  20  toises,  or  about  120  feet,  produce 
a  change  of  two  lines,  and  7  toises,  or  42  feet,  a  change 
of  |  a  line,  he  made  the  observation  at  the  top  and 
bottom  of  the  tower  of  St.  Jacques 1  de  la  Boucherie, 
which  was  about  24  or  25  toises,  or  about  150  feet 
high,  and  he  found  a  difference  of  more  than  2  lines  in 
the  mercurial  column ;  and  in  a  private  house  90  steps 
high  he  found  a  difference  of  J  a  line.  .  .  .  After  this 
important  experiment  was  made,  Pascal  intimated  to 
M.  Perier  that  different  states  of  the  weather  would 
occasion  differences  in  the  barometer,  according  as  it 
was  cold,  hot,  dry,  or  moist ;  and  in  order  to  put  this 
opinion  to  the  test  of  experiment,  M.  Perier  instituted 
a  series  of  observations,  which  he  continued  from  the 
beginning  of  1649  till  March  1651.  Corresponding 
observations  were  made  at  the  same  time  at  Paris  and 
at  Stockholm  by  the  French  ambassador,  M.  Chanut, 
and  Descartes;  and  from  these  it  appeared  that  the 
mercury  rises  in  weather  which  is  cold,  cloudy,  and 
damp,  and  falls  when  the  weather  is  hot  and  dry,  and 
during  rain  and  snow,  but  still  with  such  irregularities 
that  no  general  rule  could  be  established.  At  Clermont 
the  difference  between  the  highest  and  the  lowest  state 
of  the  mercury  was  1  inch  3 J  lines ;  at  Paris  the  same, 
and  at  Stockholm  2J  lines." 

It  is  worth  while  to  dwell  upon  these  details,  because 
in  this  way  the  question  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  the 
barometer,  and  the  theory  of  the  suspension  of  water 
in  a  tube,  was  finally  settled  by  experiment,  and  not 

1  The  tower  was  then  part  of  the  Church  of  St.  Jacques  which  was 
demolished  in  1789.  The  tower  is  still  a  conspicuous  object  in  Paris,  and 
has  a  statue  of  Pascal  in  commemoration  of  this  work. 


SCIENTIFIC  WORK  21 

until  then.  It  had  been  suggested  by  Torricelli,  who 
showed  the  direction  in  which  the  solution  was  to  be 
sought ;  and  Pascal  never  called  in  question  the  claims 
of  Torricelli ;  but  it  was  he  who  tried  the  experiment 
and  proved  the  truth  of  the  theory.  As  it  has  been 
remarked,  Galileo  proved  that  the  air  was  heavy, 
Torricelli  suggested  that  its  weight  was  the  cause  of 
the  suspension  of  water  or  mercury  in  a  tube ;  it  was 
left  to  Pascal  to  demonstrate  the  truth  of  the  theory 
by  experiment,  and  he  claimed  no  more  than  this. 

It  need  not  surprise  us  to  know  that  the  Jesuits  did 
not  regard  the  success  of  Pascal  with  satisfaction. 
Without  reference  being  made  to  him  by  name,  in  certain 
theses  presented  at  their  College  of  Montferrand  he  was 
accused  of  claiming  to  be  the  inventor  of  a  certain 
experiment  of  which  Torricelli  was  said  to  be  the  author. 
The  theses  were  addressed  to  a  friend  of  Pascal,  M. 
Ribeyre,  first  president  in  the  Court  of  Aids  at  Clermont- 
Ferrand  ;  and  it  was  to  him  that  Pascal  addressed  his 
defence,  12th  July  1651,  in  which  he  explained  in 
detail  the  history  of  his  experiment,  pointing  out 
what  had  been  done  in  Italy,  what  the  French  had 
learnt  from  this,  and  that  he  had  himself  failed  at  first 
to  mention  the  name  of  Torricelli  simply  because  he 
was  not  then  acquainted  with  it ;  but  that  as  soon  as 
he  knew  it,  he  hastened  to  express  his  satisfaction  that 
the  suggestion  had  come  from  a  man  of  such  eminence. 

M.  de  Ribeyre,  in  reply,  told  Pascal  that  he  felt 
these  accusations  too  deeply.  He  assures  him  that  the 
remarks  of  his  critic  arose  not  from  any  personal 
feeling,  but  from  the  eagerness  of  a  man  of  science. 
And  as  for  any  charges  that  might  be  brought  against 
Pascal  himself,  they  were  unworthy  of  notice.  "  Your 


22  PASCAL 

candour  and  your  sincerity,"  said  M.  de  Ribeyre,  "  are 
too  well  known  to  me  that  I  should  allow  myself  to 
believe  that  you  could  ever  be  convicted  of  having 
done  anything  inconsistent  with  the  virtue  which  you 
profess,  and  which  appears  in  all  your  actions  and 
deportment.  I  honour  and  reverence  your  virtue  more 
than  your  knowledge." 

This  controversy  has  been  almost  forgotten  in  the 
presence  of  one  more  serious.  Between  the  time  of  the 
experiments  at  Rouen,  in  1646,  and  that  of  the  letter  to 
M.  Pe'rier,  Pascal  had  two  interviews  with  Descartes  in 
Paris,  on  the  23rd  and  24th  of  September  1647.  Of 
these  interviews  we  possess  a  very  interesting  account, 
written  on  25th  September,  by  Jacqueline  Pascal  to  her 
sister,  Madame  Perier.  Descartes  expressed,  through 
some  friends,  a  great  desire  to  see  Pascal ;  and  although 
the  latter  was  in  a  weak  state  of  health,  it  was  not 
thought  proper  to  refuse  the  request  of  so  eminent  a 
man.  Besides  Descartes'  friends,  Pascal's  friend  M. 
Roberval  was  present  at  the  interview.  From 
Jacqueline  Pascal's  report  it  would  appear  that 
Descartes  still  held  that  there  was  some  "subtle 
matter"  within  the  tube  which  accounted  for  the 
phenomena,  and  it  seems  probable  that  Pascal  more  or 
less  evaded  the  remark,  so  that  his  friend  M.  Roberval 
imagined  he  had  some  difficulty  in  speaking.  For  this 
reason  he  interposed  in  the  discussion,  which  led  to 
some  unpleasantness  between  him  and  Descartes.1 

Such  is,  in  substance,  what  we  find  in  Jacqueline's 
letter  to  her  sister,  25th  September  1647;  but  sub- 
sequently (llth  June  1649)  Descartes  writes  from 

1  "Us  se  chanterent  goguette,"  says  the  latter  writer,  "un  peu  plus 
fort  que  jeu." 


SCIENTIFIC  WORK  23 

Stockholm,  where  he  was  then  living,  to  his  friend 
Carcavi,  asking  to  be  made  acquainted  with  the 
success  of  Pascal's  experiments  at  the  Puy-de-D6me. 
"  I  had  the  right,"  he  says,  "  to  expect  this  from  him 
rather  than  from  you,  because  it  was  I  who  recom- 
mended him,  two  years  ago,  to  try  this  experiment; 
and  I  assured  him  that  although  I  had  not  tried  it,  I 
had  no  doubt  of  its  success."  On  the  17th  of  June, 
writing  to  the  same  correspondent,  he  declares  again, 
"  It  is  I  who  entreated  M.  Pascal,  two  years  ago,  to  try 
the  experiment ;  and  I  assured  him  of  success  as  being 
altogether  in  conformity  with  my  principles,  without 
which  he  would  not  have  thought  of  it,  since  he  was  of 
a  contrary  opinion." 

A  controversy  has  arisen  as  to  the  significance  of 
these  statements,  some  contending  that  Pascal  con- 
cealed the  help  he  obtained  from  Descartes ;  others,  that 
Descartes  has  endeavoured  improperly  to  claim  what 
belongs  to  Pascal.  There  seems  to  be  no  sufficient 
ground  for  either  accusation.  If  we  may  trust  the 
testimony  of  Jacqueline  Pascal,  it  would  appear  that 
the  views  of  Descartes  were  far  from  clear  at  the  time 
of  his  interview  with  Pascal ;  and  it  is  incredible  that 
Pascal,  who  acknowledged  so  freely  the  work  of  his 
predecessors,  should  make  no  allusion  to  Descartes,  if 
he  had  really  gained  anything  from  him.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  quite  conceivable  that  Descartes,  in 
later  years,  should  imagine  that  his  views  at  this  time 
had  been  clearer  than  they  were.  At  least  it  seems 
evident  that  no  change  took  place  in  the  relations  of 
Descartes  with  the  Pascal  family;  and  subsequently 
they  are  found  exchanging  views  on  the  subject  of  the 
suspension  of  the  mercury  in  the  tube.  It  may  be 


24  PASCAL 

added  that  posterity  has  so  far  settled  the  controversy 
as  to  decide  that  Pascal  is  fully  entitled  to  the  credit  of 
the  experiments  on  the  Puy-de-D6me,  and  of  the  con- 
clusions there  established. 

This  discovery  was  important  in  itself,  but  it  was 
even  more  so  as  leading  him  to  a  general  theory  of  the 
equilibrium  of  liquids,  which  he  set  forth  in  his 
treatise  on  the  Equilibrium  of  Fluids,  and  in  his 
treatise  on  the  Weight  of  the  Mass  of  the  Atmosphere, 
composed  in  1651.  Certain  points  had  already  been 
made  clear ;  namely,  that  the  pressure  of  a  fluid  on  its 
base  is  as  the  product  of  the  base  multiplied  by  the 
height  of  the  fluid,  and  that  all  fluids  press  equally 
on  all  sides  of  the  vessels  enclosing  them.  But  it  still 
remained  to  determine  exactly  the  measure  of  the 
pressure,  in  order  to  deduce  the  general  condition  of 
equilibrium.  "But,"  says  Sir  David  Brewster,  "the 
most  remarkable  part  of  his  treatise  on  the  Equilibrium 
of  Fluids,  and  one  which  of  itself  would  have  im- 
mortalised him,  is  his  application  of  the  general  principle 
to  the  construction  of  what  he  calls  the  'mechanical 
machine  for  multiplying  forces/ — an  effect  which,  he 
says,  may  be  produced  to  any  extent  we  choose,  as  one 
may,  by  means  of  this  machine,  raise  a  weight  of  any 
magnitude.  This  new  machine  is  the  Hydrostatic 
Press,  first  introduced  by  our  celebrated  countryman, 
Mr.  Bramah. 

"  Pascal's  treatise  on  the  weight  of  the  whole  mass  of 
air  forms  the  basis  of  the  modern  science  of  Pneumatics. 
In  order  to  prove  that  the  mass  of  air  presses  by  its 
weight  on  all  the  bodies  which  it  surrounds,  and  also 
that  it  is  elastic  and  compressible,  a  balloon  half  filled 
with  air  was  carried  to  the  top  of  the  Puy-de-D6me. 


SCIENTIFIC  WORK  25 

It  gradually  inflated  itself  as  it  ascended,  and  when  it 
reached  the  summit  it  was  quite  full  and  swollen,  as  if 
f resK  air  had  been  blown  into  it ;  or,  what  is  the  same 
thing,  it  swelled  in  proportion  as  the  weight  of  the 
column  of  air  which  pressed  upon  it  diminished.  When 
again  brought  down  it  became  more  and  more  flaccid, 
and  when  it  reached  the  bottom  it  resumed  its  original 
condition.  In  the  nine  chapters  of  which  the  treatise 
consists,  he  shows  that  all  the  phenomena  or  effects 
hitherto  ascribed  to  the  horror  of  a  vacuum  arise  from 
the  weight  of  the  mass  of  air ;  and  after  explaining  the 
variable  pressure  of  the  atmosphere  in  different  localities 
and  in  its  different  states,  and  the  rise  of  the  water  in 
pumps,  he  calculates  that  the  whole  mass  of  air  round 
our  globe  weighs  8,983,889,440,000,000,000  French 
pounds." 

After  this  Pascal  returned  with  renewed  zeal  to  his 
mathematical  studies,  and  several  important  essays 
were  the  result,  e.g.  his  treatise  on  the  Arithmetical 
Triangle  and  his  problems  on  the  Cycloid.  By  means 
of  the  former  he  solved  a  number  of  theorems  which 
could  not  easily  have  been  demonstrated  in  any  other 
way,  and  "  in  finding  the  coefficients  of  different  terms 
of  a  binomial  raised  to  an  even  and  positive  power." 
This  treatise  was  printed  in  the  year  1654,  but  was  not 
published  until  1668,  after  the  death  of  the  author. 

The  treatise  on  the  Cycloid  belongs  to  a  somewhat 
later  period.  "The  Cycloid  was  a  famous  curve  in 
those  days ;  it  had  been  discussed  by  Galileo,  Descartes, 
Fermat,  Roberval,  and  Torricelli,  who  had  in  turn  ex- 
hausted their  skill  upon  it." l  It  was  during  a  severe 
attack  of  toothache  in  1658,  when  he  found  sleep 
1  Chrystal. 


26  PASCAL 

impossible,  that  Pascal  concentrated  his  attention  on 
this  subject ;  and  "  within  eight  days,  and  in  the  midst 
of  cruel  sufferings,  he  devised  a  method  which  embraced 
all  the  problems, — a  method  founded  upon  the  sum- 
mation of  certain  series,  of  which  he  had  given  the 
elements  in  his  writings  accompanying  his  TraiU  du 
Triangle  Arithmttique.  From  this  discovery  there 
was  only  a  step  to  that  of  the  Differential  and  Integral 
Calculus ;  and  it  may  be  confidently  presumed  that,  if 
Pascal  had  proceeded  with  his  mathematical  studies, 
he  would  have  anticipated  Leibnitz  and  Newton  in 
the  glory  of  their  great  discovery."  l 

Pascal  may  be  said  to  have  ended  his  scientific  work 
by  his  writings  on  the  Cycloid.  But  there  was  an 
invention  to  which  he  gave  some  attention  towards  the 
close  of  his  life — that  of  which  Madame  Perier  speaks 
in  a  letter  to  one  of  the  Arnaulds  as  "1'affaire  des 
carrosses."  Pascal  seems  to  have  suggested  the  idea 
of  having  public  cars .  or  omnibuses  on  certain  main 
routes  in  Paris,  on  which  persons  might  be  conveyed 
"  a  cinq  sols  " — for  five  cents.  It  is  at  least  a  fact  that 
a  patent  was  granted  to  the  Due  de  Koannez,  a  friend 
of  Pascal,  together  with  some  other  noblemen,  January 
1662.  According  to  Madame  Pe'rier,  Pascal  interested 
himself  in  the  undertaking,  which  proved  successful, 
and  he  asked  to  have  a  thousand  francs  in  advance,  to 
send  to  the  poor  at  Blois,  because  the  need  was  too 
pressing  to  admit  of  delay.  When  it  was  suggested  to 
him  that  the  enterprise  might  not  prove  sufficiently 
successful  to  bear  this  charge,  he  answered  that  he 
could  pay  back  the  amount  out  of  his  own  property ; 
by  which,  says  his  sister,  he  showed  them  the  truth  of 
1  Bossut. 


SCIENTIFIC  WORK  27 

what  he  had  often  said  to  them,  that  he  had  no  wish 
to  have  "  money  except  for  the  relief  of  the  poor." 

A  short  essay  written  by  Pascal  about  the  time  of 
the  experiments  on  the  Puy-de-D6me,  in  the  year  1647, 
entitled,  Preface  sur  le  Traiti  du  Vide,  should  here 
be  noticed.  There  are,  he  says,  two  kinds  of  things, 
those  which  depend  only  on  the  memory,  namely,  matters 
of  fact  or  of  institution,  whether  divine  or  human; 
and  those  which  fall  under  the  senses  or  under  the 
reason,  namely,  truths  to  be  discovered,  the  object  of 
mathematical  and  physical  sciences. 

Those  two  domains,  he  says,  are  entirely  separated 
the  one  from  the  other.  In  the  first,  authority  alone 
is  admitted.  In  fact,  this  alone  can  make  us  acquainted 
with  past  events.  In  theology  particularly  it  is 
sovereign,  sufficing  to  raise  into  truths  things  the 
most  incomprehensible,  as  well  as  to  render  uncertain 
the  most  probable.  But  in  the  domain  of  physics  and 
mathematics  authority  has  no  force.  This  will  be  con- 
ceded without  difficulty  in  regard  to  mathematics.  In 
physics  the  problem  is  to  find  the  laws  of  nature,  that 
is  to  say,  the  constant  relations  of  phenomena.  Now 
authority  is  of  no  use  in  making  us  acquainted  with 
the  facts  which  pass  under  our  eyes,  and  it  could  not 
prove  that  those  facts  are  explained  by  such  or  such  a 
natural  cause.  Nor  is  it  more  useful  in  mathematics ; 
for  the  definitions  which  we  might  form  in  that  subject, 
in  order  to  derive  our  arguments  from  them,  could  be 
only  fictions  of  our  mind  to  which  Nature  is  in  no  way 
bound  to  conform  herself.  Experience  and  reasoning, 
the  former  as  point  of  departure  and  verification  of  the 
latter,  such  is  the  only  method. 

From  this  difference  of  method  between  theology  and 


28  PASCAL 

physics  there  results  a  fundamental  difference  of 
character.  Theology  is  unchangeable.  Physics  is 
submitted  to  a  continual  progress.  It  is  necessary  to 
confound  the  insolence  of  those  false  sages  who  claim 
for  Aristotle  the  inviolable  respect  which  is  due  to  God 
alone.  The  progress  which  the  physical^sciences  demand 
is  a  consequence  of  their  double  principle.  On  the  one 
side,  experiments  multiply  continually,  each  of  them 
bringing  new  knowledge,  whether  positive  or  negative. 
On  the  other  side,  it  is  not  with  human  reason  as  with 
the  instinct  of  animals.  The  latter  have  no  other 
destiny  than  to  maintain  themselves  in  a  state  of 
limited  perfection ;  an  instinct  always  the  same  suffices 
for  them.  But  man  is  produced  for  infinity;  his  in- 
telligence, therefore,  goes  on  perfecting  itself  without 
ceasing.  He  begins  with  ignorance.  The  experience 
which  he  acquires  urges  him  to  reason,  and  the  effects 
of  his  reasonings  increase  indefinitely.  Then,  thanks 
to  memory,  thanks  to  the  means  which  men  possess  for 
preserving  their  knowledge,  not  only  does  each  one  of 
them  advance  from  day  to  day  in  the  sciences,  but  all 
of  them  unitedly  make  continual  progress  in  them,  so 
that  all  the  succession  of  men,  during  the  course  of  so 
many  centuries,  ought  to  be  considered  as  one  man  who 
is  always  living  and  who  learns  continually. 

What  then,  he  asks,  is  our  true  relation  to  antiquity  ? 
Words  cheat  us.  Those  whom  we  call  ancients  were 
new  in  all  things,  and  formed  properly  the  infancy  of 
humanity.  It  is  we  who  are  the  ancients ;  and  if 
antiquity  could  be  a  title  to  respect,  it  is  we  who 
should  be  respectable.  But  nothing  is,  in  fact,  re- 
spectable but  truth,  which  is  neither  young  nor  old, 
but  eternal.  If  any  of  the  ancients  have  been  great, 


SCIENTIFIC  WORK  29 

it  is  because,  in  their  efforts  to  attain  greatness,  they 
have  used  the  discoveries  of  their  predecessors  only  as 
means  by  which  to  excel  them.  By  what  right  are  we 
to  be  hindered  from  making  the  same  use  of  what  they 
have  done  ? 

There  was  here  no  disparagement  of  antiquity.  The 
discoveries  of  the  ancients  were  steps  by  which  we 
have  risen  to  more  complete  knowledge.  We  see 
further  than  they  did,  because  we  have  begun  where 
they  ended.  The  scientific  principles  here  enunciated 
by  Pascal  are  now  regarded  as  a  matter  of  course ;  but 
it  was  otherwise  in  his  time.  To  these  principles  he 
was  constantly  loyal.  The  treatise  to  which  we  have 
been  referring  belongs  to  the  period  of  his  experiments 
on  the  Puy-de-D6me,  and  it  was  some  little  time  before 
this  that  his  religious  character  assumed  a  new  com- 
plexion. How  he  adjusted  the  claims  of  God  and  those 
of  science  we  shall  endeavour  to  see  in  the  sequel. 


CHAPTER  III 

SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

THE  Pascal  family  were  always  eminently  respectable : 
not  only  all  of  them  of  great  and  recognised  ability, 
but  people  who  were  well  known  for  the  discharge  of 
all  their  social  and  religious  duties;  but  apparently 
without  a  touch  of  fanaticism  or  asceticism.  Without 
being  in  the  least  degree  chargeable  with  lukewarm- 
ness,  it  could  still  perhaps  be  said  of  them  that  they 
knew  "  how  to  make  the  best  of  both  worlds."  They 
certainly  believed  that  "  godliness  is  profitable  for  all 
things,  having  promise  of  the  life  which  now  is,  and 
of  that  which  is  to  come."  But  a  great  change  was 
impending. 

In  the  beginning  of  1646  fitienne  Pascal,  then  about 
fifty  years  of  age,  having  gone  out  on  some  affair  of 
charity,  slipped  on  the  ice  and  dislocated  his  thigh. 
During  his  illness  he  was  attended  by  two  gentlemen, 
living  near  Rouen,  who  had  a  great  reputation  for  the 
treatment  of  this  kind  of  injuries.  These  gentlemen 
were  brothers,  and  their  names  were  M.  de  la  Bou- 
teillerie  and  M.  des  Landes.  They  were  men  of 
property,  and  had  devoted  themselves  to  these  studies 
from  an  interest  in  them,  and  from  the  desire  to  benefit 

their  fellow-men. 

so 


SPIRITUAL  LIFE  31 

Impressed  by  the  preaching  of  M.  Guillebert,  cure 
of  Rouville,  a  devoted  priest  and  a  follower  of  the 
Jansenist  St.  Cyran,  they  had  placed  themselves  under 
his  direction,  and  had  been  led  to  give  up  their  whole 
life  to  the  service  of  God,  to  the  working  out  of  their 
own  salvation,  and  to  the  service  of  the  necessitous 
around  them.  One  of  them  built  a  hospital  at  the  end 
of  his  park,  and  gave  his  children  to  the  service  of  the 
Church ;  the  other,  who  was  childless,  provided  beds  for 
the  hospital  and  attended  on  the  poor.  They  passed  a 
certain  time  in  the  Pascal  family,  in  order  to  make 
sure  that  the  healing  of  the  father  was  complete.  Their 
deportment  and  their  conversation  deeply  impressed 
their  hosts ;  and  thus  they  led  them  to  the  consideration 
of  the  true  nature  of  religion,  and  particularly  of  the 
question  as  to  whether  the  pursuit  of  success  in  the 
world  could  be  connected  with  the  practice  of  religion. 

Madame  Perier  tells  us  how  Blaise  Pascal  came 
under  these  influences.  "Immediately  after  the  ex- 
periments" of  1646,  she  says,  "and  when  he  was  not 
yet  twenty-four  years  of  age,  Providence  having 
brought  about  an  occasion  which  obliged  him  to  read 
books  of  piety,  God  enlightened  him  by  this  reading 
to  such  an  extent,  that  he  came  to  understand  perfectly 
that  the  Christian  religion  obliges  us  to  live  only  for 
God,  and  to  have  no  other  object  but  Him.  And  this 
truth  appeared  to  him  so  evident,  so  necessary,  and  so 
useful,  that  it  put  an  end  to  all  his  researches  ;  so  that 
from  this  time  he  renounced  all  other  kinds  of  know- 
ledge in  order  to  apply  himself  exclusively  to  the  "  one 
thing"  which  Jesus  Christ  calls  'needful.'"  How 
exactly  we  are  to  understand  this  statement  we  shall 
see  in  the  sequel. 


32  PASCAL 

"  He  had  been  preserved,"  she  goes  on,  "  up  to  this 
time,  by  a  special  protection  of  God,  from  all  the  vices 
of  youth;  and,  what  is  still  more  strange,  in  a  mind 
of  this  temper  and  character,  he  was  never  carried 
away  to  any  free  thinking  in  regard  to  religion,  having 
always  limited  his  curiosity  to  natural  things.  He 
has  told  me  often  that  he  added  this  obligation  to  all 
the  others  for  which  he  was  indebted  to  my  father, 
who,  himself  having  a  great  respect  for  religion,  had 
inspired  his  son  with  the  same  from  his  infancy,  giving 
him  as  a  maxim,  that  all  which  is  the  object  of  faith 
could  not  be  the  object  of  reason,  and  much  less  could 
be  made  subject  to  it.  These  maxims,  which  were 
often  repeated  to  him  by  a  father  for  whom  he  had 
the  highest  esteem,  and  in  whom  he  discerned  great 
knowledge,  accompanied  by  a  power  of  reasoning  both 
keen  and  powerful,  made  so  great  an  impression  upon 
his  mind  that  when  he  heard  some  discourses  delivered 
by  freethinkers,  he  remained  entirely  unmoved  by 
them ;  and  although  he  was  quite  young,  he  regarded 
them  as  men  who  had  adopted  the  false  principle,  that 
the  human  reason  is  above  everything,  and  who  knew 
nothing  of  the  nature  of  faith ;  and  thus  this  mind,  so 
great,  so  vast,  so  filled  with  the  desire  for  knowledge, 
which  sought  out  with  so  much  care  the  cause  and  the 
reason  of  everything,  was  at  the  same  time  submissive 
as  a  child  in  all  matters  of  religion ;  and  this  simplicity 
reigned  in  him  throughout  his  whole  life ;  so  that  after 
he  had  resolved  to  prosecute  no  other  studies  than  that 
of  religion,  he  never  applied  himself  to  curious  questions 
of  theology,  but  put  forth  the  whole  strength  of  his 
mind  in  attaining  the  knowledge  and  the  practice  of 
the  perfection  of  Christian  morality,  to  which  he 


SPIRITUAL  LIFE  33 

consecrated  all  the  talents  that  God  had  given  to  him, 
having  done  nothing  else  during  the  whole  remainder 
of  his  life  than  meditate  on  the  law  of  God  day  and 
night." 

Pascal  and  the  other  members  of  the  family  now 
came  under  Jansenist  influence,  studying  the  books 
recommended  to  them  by  their  physicians,  such  as  the 
Reformation  of  the  Inner  Man,  by  Jansenius,  the  tract 
on  Frequent  Communion,  by  Arnauld,  and  the  Spiritual 
Letters,  and  other  works  of  St.  Cyran.  Of  the  teach- 
ings of  this  school  we  shall  have  much  to  say  hereafter. 
At  present  it  may  suffice  to  remark  that  they  were 
almost  Calvinistic,  and,  as  we  must  judge,  essentially 
Augustinian,  and  therefore  bitterly  opposed  by  the 
Semi-Pelagianism  which  was  the  prevailing  form  of 
doctrine  in  the  Gallican  Church  of  the  period.  One 
can  easily  understand  how  a  character  like  that  of 
Pascal,  earnest,  intense,  sad,  should  be  attracted  by 
such  teaching.  His  was  a  nature  which  found  it 
difficult  to  do  things  by  halves,  to  whom  the  attempt 
to  serve  God  and  Mammon  at  once  was  an  impossibility ; 
and  thus  he  formed  the  purpose  of  henceforth  living 
for  God  alone,  and  of  making  His  will  the  supreme  law 
of  his  life.  In  particular,  he  resolved,  as  his  sister  has 
told  us,  to  put  an  end  to  those  curious  inquiries  to 
which  he  had  hitherto  devoted  himself,  and  undertook 
the  serious  study  no  longer  of  science,  but  of  religion. 

The  whole  of  the  Pascal  family  came  under  the 
Jansenist  influence ;  but  Blaise,  who  had  now  undergone 
what  is  known  as  his  "  first  conversion,"  was  specially 
concerned  about  the  conversion  of  his  younger  sister 
Jacqueline,  who  was  now  twenty  years  of  age,  and 
was  sought  in  marriage  by  a  counsellor  in  the  parlia- 
3 


34  PASCAL 

ment  of  Rouen.  Her  brother  pointed  out  to  her  that 
such  a  life  as  then  opened  before  her  would  be  a  robbing 
of  God  of  a  part  of  that  which  belonged  to  Him  ;  and 
by  degrees  he  brought  her  to  the  same  opinion. 
Separating  herself  from  all  earthly  interests,  she  gave 
herself  up  to  the  service  of  God  alone,  exhibiting  to 
her  brother  much  gratitude  for  his  guidance,  and 
henceforth  regarding  herself  as  his  daughter. 

This  was  followed  by  the  conversion  of  their  father, 
who  then  entered  upon  the  same  manner  of  life,  and 
persevered  in  it  until  the  time  of  his  death  in  September 
1651.  Finally,  in  this  same  year,  1646,  M.  and  Madame 
Perier,  having  come  to  Rouen,  and  finding  the  other 
members  of  the  family  thus  wholly  consecrated  to  the 
service  of  God,  resolved  to  join  them ;  and  they,  too, 
were  in  like  manner  converted,  Madame  Perier  being 
twenty-six  years  of  age. 

An  incident  occurred  about  this  time  with  respect 
to  which  widely  different  opinions  have  been  enter- 
tained. It  was  an  illustration  of  the  zeal  of  a  new 
convert  in  behalf  of  the  purity  of  the  faith,  and  it 
may  be  well  to  tell  the  story  in  the  words  of  Madame 
Perier.  Although,  she  says,  her  brother  had  not  made 
a  special  study  of  theology,  "  he  was  not  ignorant  of 
the  decisions  of  the  Church  against  the  heresies  which 
have  been  invented  by  human  subtlety,  and  his  live- 
liest opposition  was  directed  against  these  tendencies ; 
and  God  gave  him,  at  this  time,  an  opportunity  of 
showing  the  zeal  which  he  had  for  religion. 

"  He  was  then  at  Rouen,  where  my  father  was  em- 
ployed in  the  service  of  the  king ;  and  there  was  there 
also,  at  the  same  time,  a  man1  who  taught  a  new 
1  His  name  was  Jacques  Forton,  called  Brother  St.  Ange. 


SPIRITUAL  LIFE  35 

philosophy  which  attracted  all  the  curious.  My 
brother  having  been  pressed  to  be  present  by  two 
young  men  who  were  friends  of  his,  went  with  them  ; 
but  they  were  much  surprised,  in  the  interview  which 
they  had  with  this  man,  to  find  that,  in  setting  forth 
to  them  the  principles  of  his  philosophy,  he  drew  from 
them  consequences,  on  points  of  faith,  which  were 
contrary  to  the  decisions  of  the  Church.  He  professed 
to  prove  by  his  arguments  that  the  body  of  Jesus  Christ 
was  not  formed  of  the  blood  of  the  Holy  Virgin,  but 
of  another  matter  created  on  purpose,  and  several  other 
similar  things.  They  opposed  these  opinions,  but  he  re- 
mained firm  in  his  conviction.  Having  then  considered 
with  themselves  the  danger  of  allowing  the  liberty  of 
instructing  youth  to  a  man  who  had  such  erroneous 
sentiments,  they  resolved  first  to  warn  him,  and  then 
to  denounce  him,  if  he  resisted  the  advice  which  they 
gave  him.  So  it  turned  out,  for  he  despised  their 
advice,  in  consequence  of  which  they  thought  it  their 
duty  to  denounce  him  to  M.  du  Bellay,  who  then  dis- 
charged episcopal  functions  in  the  diocese  of  Rouen  by 
commission  from  the  archbishop.1  M.  du  Bellay  sent 
for  the  man,  and,  having  interrogated  him,  was  deceived 
by  an  equivocal  confession  of  faith  which  he  wrote 
to  him  and  signed  with  his  hand,  the  bishop  taking 
little  account  of  a  warning  given  by  three  young  men. 
"  As  soon,  however,  as  they  saw  this  confession  of 
faith,  they  recognised  its  defects,  so  that  they  felt 

1  "  The  Archbishop  of  Rouen  mentioned  here  was  Frangois  de  Harlay, 
second  of  that  name,  uncle  of  the  celebrated  Archbishop  of  Paris.  M. 
du  Bellay  is  M.  de  Belley,  i.e.  M.  the  bishop  of  Belley.  Hew  as  the 
celebrated  Camus,  the  disciple  and  friend  of  St.  Fra^ois  de  Sales.  He 
had  only  the  title  of  bishop,  having  resigned  his  bishopric  in  1629. 
He  received  ill  exchange  the  abbey  of  Aulnay." — Ha  vet. 


36  PASCAL 

constrained  to  have  recourse  to  the  Archbishop  of 
Rouen,  at  Gaillon,  who,  after  having  examined  the 
whole  affair,  found  it  so  important  that  he  wrote  a 
patent  to  his  council,  and  gave  an  express  order  to 
M.  du  Bellay  to  require  the  man  to  retract  on  all  the 
points  in  regard  to  which  he  was  accused,  and  to 
receive  nothing  from  him  except  by  communication 
from  those  who  had  denounced  him.  The  thing  was 
carried  through  in  this  manner.  Forton  appeared 
before  the  council  of  the  archbishop  and  renounced  all 
his  opinions ;  and  it  may  be  said  that  this  was  done 
sincerely,  for  he  never  showed  any  anger  against  those 
who  had  taken  part  in  the  affair,  which  leads  to  the 
belief  that  he  was  himself  deceived  by  false  conclusions 
which  he  drew  from  his  false  principles.  It  was  quite 
certain  that  there  was  no  intention  on  the  part  of  the 
complainants  to  injure  him,  but  only  to  undeceive  him, 
and  to  prevent  him  from  leading  astray  young  persons 
who  were  incapable  of  distinguishing  truth  from  false- 
hood in  questions  of  such  subtlety.  Thus  the  affair 
terminated  pleasantly." 

Various  harsh  criticisms  have  been  directed  against 
the  conduct  of  Pascal  on  this  occasion  ;  but  perhaps  it 
has  been  too  easily  forgotten  that  religious  toleration 
was  not  a  generally  accepted  doctrine  in  the  time 
of  Pascal.  Our  own  English  Puritans  were  scandalised 
by  the  restriction  placed  upon  the  "  truths  "  which  they 
held ;  but  they  were  not  quite  clear  on  the  point  that 
men  should  be  permitted  to  propagate  "  error."  There 
can,  at  least,  be  no  question  as  to  the  consistency  of 
Pascal's  conduct  in  this  matter. 

The  faith  and  patience  of  Pascal  were  sorely  tried 
about  this  time  by  the  loss  of  his  health,  which  was 


SPIRITUAL  LIFE  37 

never  vigorous;  and  his  sister  speaks  with  great  ad- 
miration of  his  endurance  of  his  sufferings.  He 
was  afflicted,  she  says,  "  with  continual  maladies  which 
went  on  increasing.  But  as  now  he  knew  no  other 
science  than  that  of  perfection,  he  found  a  great  differ- 
ence between  this  and  those  which  had  previously 
occupied  his  mind;  for  instead  of  his  indispositions 
retarding  his  progress,  those  very  indispositions  tended 
to  increase  his  perfection  through  the  admirable 
patience  with  which  he  endured  them."  And  then 
she  proceeds  to  give  one  example  in  illustration. 

"  Among  other  indispositions,"  she  says,  "  he  suffered 
from  being  unable  to  swallow  any  liquid  which  was 
not  warm ;  and  even  so  only  drop  by  drop.  But  as, 
besides  this,  he  had  an  intolerable  pain  in  the  head, 
and  an  excessive  internal  heat,  and  many  other 
troubles,  the  physicians  ordered  him  to  purge  himself 
once  every  two  days  for  three  months ;  so  that  it  was 
necessary  to  take  all  these  medicines,  and  besides  to 
have  them  warmed  and  to  swallow  them  drop  by  drop, 
which  was  a  genuine  punishment,  and  most  distressing 
to  all  who  were  near  him,  without  any  complaint 
coming  from  him." 

It  was  probably  about  this  time  that  he  wrote  his 
"  Prayer  to  ask  of  God  the  right  use  of  sickness,"  of 
which  we  may  here  present  the  leading  thoughts. 
Granting,  he  says,  that  sickness  is  an  evil,  and  some- 
times incurable,  the  problem  is  to  render  it  endurable, 
and  even,  if  possible,  to  turn  it  to  good  by  the  use  that 
we  make  of  it.  Of  this  problem  the  Christian  doctrine 
furnishes  the  solution. 

In  the  first  place,  it  explains  the  existence  of  the 
malady.  It  teaches  that  man  has  sinned,  and  that 


38  PASCAL 

now,  in  his  natural  estate,  lie  is  under  the  sway  of  his 
fault.  Being  detached  from  God  so  as  to  turn  himself 
towards  perishable  things,  he  is  henceforth  attached 
to  these  objects.  Now,  God  is  at  once  justice  and 
mercy.  Just,  He  imposes  upon  man  suffering  as  ex- 
piation; merciful,  He  offers  it  to  him  as  a  means  of 
detaching  himself  from  earthly  things  and  of  directing 
himself  towards  his  true  end. 

But  how  should  suffering  have  this  double  effect? 
Will  it  suffice  that  I  should  undergo  it  with  resigna- 
tion in  the  manner  of  the  heathen  ?  If  in  my  manner 
of  using  it  there  is  nothing  but  what  I  can  give  my- 
self by  myself,  my  suffering  is  worth  no  more  than  I 
arn,  and  cannot  save  me.  Shall  I  ask,  then,  of  God  to 
set  me  free  from  sickness  and  grief  ?  That  would  be  to 
claim,  from  the  time  of  the  trial,  the  recompense  of  the 
elect  and  the  saints.  It  is  necessary  that  I  should  suffer, 
and  that  my  suffering  should  be  the  channel  through 
which  grace  should  enter  into  me  to  change  me. 

Now,  since  the  work  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  has 
suffered  all  the  pains  which  we  have  merited,  suffering 
is  a  feature  of  resemblance,  a  feature  of  union  between 
man  and  God.  Moreover,  it  is  the  only  one  in  the 
present  life.  Thanks,  then,  to  suffering,  God  may 
visit  the  human  soul.  It  suffices  that,  in  His  love, 
He  unite  the  suffering  of  the  sinner  with  that  of  the 
Redeemer.  Assumed  by  Jesus  Christ,  the  soul  will 
acquire  this  purifying  and  renovating  virtue  which 
the  divine  action  alone  can  confer  upon  it. 

Thus,  the  Christian  doctrine,  with  the  explanation 
of  evil,  brings  the  remedy  of  it.  It  not  only  renders 
the  malady  acceptable ;  it  makes  it  the  chief  instru- 
ment in  our  conversion  and  our  sanctrfication. 


SPIRITUAL  LIFE  39 

In  the  autumn  of  1647  Pascal,  finding  himself  a 
little  better,  resolved  to  come  to  Paris,  where  we  find 
him  settled  with  his  younger  sister  in  the  month  of 
September.  It  was  at  this  time  that  he  had  his 
two  interviews  with  Descartes,  who  gave  him  good 
advice  with  respect  to  the  care  of  his  health,  which 
apparently  was  not  followed. 

Pascal's  father  returned  to  Paris  in  the  month  of 
May  1648;  but  before  that  time  his  son  and  daughter 
had  come  under  the  influence  of  M.  Singlin,  an  earnest 
and  powerful  preacher  who  was  confessor  to  the  nuns 
and  Solitaries  of  Port  Royal  of  Paris.  It  was  not  long 
before  Jacqueline  conceived  the  desire  to  enter  the 
monastery,  and  in  this  she  was  sustained  by  her  brother. 
She  was  welcomed  by  the  abbess,  the  Mere  Angelique, 
and  by  her  sister  the  Mere  Agnes ;  and  placed  herself 
under  the  direction  of  M.  Singlin.  By  the  time  of  her 
father's  arrival  in  Paris  her  resolution  was  taken,  and 
her  brother  undertook  to  open  the  matter  to  her  father. 
He,  indeed,  rejoiced  to  see  his  daughter's  devotion,  but 
shrank  from  the  sacrifice  of  giving  her  up.  He  was 
quite  willing  that  she  should  choose  her  own  way  of 
living  under  his  roof,  and  in  this  respect  he  offered  her 
complete  liberty ;  but  he  could  not  at  once  bring 
himself  to  consent  to  her  taking  the  veil. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  Pascal  felt  himself 
drawn  to  the  Port  Royalists  particularly  by  the  study 
of  their  works  and  those  of  their  opponents;  and  it 
would  appear  that  some  of  the  lines  of  thought  which 
he  afterwards  pursued  with  such  force  and  brilliancy, 
were  suggested  to  him  during  his  inquiries  into  the 
teaching  of  Port  Royal.  It  is  said,  indeed,  that  one 
day,  when  in  conversation  with  M.  Rebours,  confessor 


40  PASCAL 

of  Port  Royal,  he  told  him  that  he  thought  it  possible 
to  demonstrate  by  the  mere  principles  of  common  sense 
many  of  the  things  by  which  the  freethinkers  professed 
to  be  scandalised;  and  he  expressed  the  opinion  that 
reasoning,  if  well  conducted,  would  lead  to  the  admission 
of  the  teachings  of  religion,  although  it  was  the  duty 
of  the  Christian  to  receive  them  without  the  aid  of 
reasoning. 

It  is  said  that  M.  Rebours  was  alarmed  at  this ;  and 
remembering  Pascal's  studies  in  geometry,  he  remarked 
that  it  was  to  be  feared  that  such  an  opinion  proceeded 
from  a  principle  of  vanity  and  from  confidence  in  his 
powers  of  reasoning.  On  this  Pascal  declared  that,  in 
examining  himself,  he  found  nothing  of  the  kind  which 
alarmed  M.  Rebours.  That,  he  allowed,  would  be  a 
grave  error,  but  he  adhered  to  his  opinion. 

We  have  referred  to  the  remarks  of  Madame  Perier, 
in  which  she  seems  to  say  that  her  brother  abandoned 
his  scientific  studies  after  his  conversion.  From  what 
has  been  said  in  the  previous  chapter,  this  is  clearly 
a  mistake.  Madame  Perier  would  seem  to  place  all 
his  scientific  work  before  his  conversion;  but  this  is 
evidently  wrong.  Pascal  may  have  conducted  these 
inquiries  in  a  different  spirit  in  his  later  days ;  but 
there  is  no  sufficient  reason  for  believing  that  he  gave 
them  up. 

In  the  month  of  May  1649  the  Pascal  family 
removed  to  Auvergne.  Blaise  had  been  advised  by  his 
physicians  to  abstain  from  all  intellectual  exertion,  and 
to  take  every  opportunity  for  relaxation  and  enter- 
tainment. Their  father  was  also  desirous  of  reviving 
in  Jacqueline  a  taste  for  society,  in  the  hope  that  she 
might  abandon  her  resolution  of  entering  the  convent : 


SPIRITUAL  LIFE  41 

and  this  was  the  more  likely,  as  they  had  many  friends 
and  relatives  in  that  region.  It  would  appear  that 
the  changed  circumstances  produced  no  difference  in 
Jacqueline ;  but  it  was  otherwise  with  Blaise,  although 
it  is  said  that  he  saw  the  danger  of  exposing  himself 
to  the  temptations  of  the  world.  For  now  that  he  was 
cut  off  from  his  scientific  researches  he  "set  himself 
on  the  world,"  but  without  any  approach  to  what  might 
be  called  irregularity  of  life. 

On  their  return  to  Paris  in  1649,  or,  according  to 
others,  in  1650,  Pascal  seems  to  have  contracted  an 
intimacy  with  various  persons  of  a  character  more 
secular  than  his  own.  Chief  among  these  was  the 
young  Duke  of  Roannez,  who  was  younger  than 
Pascal,  being  only  about  twenty  years  of  age.  In  his 
love  of  science  and  in  other  respects  he  had  a  deep 
sympathy  with  Pascal,  and  cultivated  earnestly  his 
society.  Another  friend  was  the  Chevalier  de  Me"re", 
a  man  of  ability  and  distinction ;  and  a  third  was  a  M. 
Miton  of  a  character  akin  to  what  we  should  now  call 
a  pessimist.  Besides  these,  among  his  acquaintances 
were  des  Barreaux,  an  irreligious  voluptuary  whom 
sickness  drove  to  religion,  the  Duchesse  d'Aiguillon 
who  had  made  Jacqueline  Pascal  known  to  Richelieu, 
and  the  Marquise  de  Sable",  who  was  the  centre  of  a 
brilliant  salon  in  Paris.  A  reference  should  perhaps 
be  made,  in  this  connection,  to  a  young  lady  with 
whom  Pascal  is  said  to  have  been  very  intimate,  "  who 
was  the  Sappho  of  the  country,"  and  greatly  admired. 
According  to  some,  this  incident  occurred  during  his 
residence  in  Auvergne  in  1649 ;  according  to  others  at 
a  later  period,  after  his  father's  death.  It  seems  that 
a  good  deal  too  much  has  been  made  of  this  incident. 


42  PASCAL 

That  Pascal  should  enjoy  the  society  of  a  highly 
intellectual  and  cultivated  woman  is  surely  not  wonder- 
ful ;  and  if  for  a  moment  he  entertained  any  warmer 
sentiments,  this  will  seem  unworthy  of  him  only  to 
those  who  hold  the  somewhat  harsh  theories  of  the 
Jansenists. 

Whilst  Pascal  was  forming  these  new  relations,  an 
event  occurred  which  was  to  have  a  deep  influence  on 
the  family.  This  was  the  death  of  his  father  on  24th 
September  1651.  Of  the  impression  produced  upon 
Pascal  we  gain  some  knowledge  from  a  letter  written 
to  M.  and  Madame  Pe"rier  in  the  following  month.  We 
seek,  he  says,  for  consolation,  and,  if  possible,  for  the 
turning  of  evil  into  good.  This  was  a  favourite 
thought  with  Pascal.  But  whence,  he  asks,  can  this 
consolation  come,  to  be  real  and  solid,  but  from  the 
truth  ?  Our  business  then,  knowing  what  death  is,  is 
to  make  a  practical  use  of  it,  in  our  judgments  and  in  our 
conduct,  in  conformity  with  this  knowledge.  According 
to  the  heathen,  death  is  a  natural  thing.  If  that  were 
so,  it  would  necessarily  be  an  evil ;  for  it  would  then 
be  in  reality  that  which  it  is  in  appearance,  corruption 
and  annihilation ;  and  no  place  would  be  left  for  hope. 
But,  according  to  the  truth  which  we  are  taught  by 
the  Holy  Spirit,  death  is  an  expiation  and  a  means  of 
delivering  us  from  concupiscence.  It  has  this  signifi- 
cance in  Jesus  Christ ;  and  it  has  the  same  in  us,  if  we 
die  with  Jesus  Christ. 

Still  there  remains  the  instinctive  dread  of  death, 
so  difficult  to  subdue.  But  we  shall  become  masters  of 
death,  if  we  understand  its  origin.  According  to  the 
true  Christian  doctrine,  our  present  love  of  life  is  a 
corruption  of  that  inclination  for  eternal  life  which 


SPIRITUAL  LIFE  43 

God  had  planted  in  us.  God  having  withdrawn  Him- 
self from  our  soul  as  a  consequence  of  sin,  the  infinite 
void  which  He  left  there  has  been  filled  by  our  Self 
and  by  the  things  of  the  present  life.  Henceforth  our 
love,  not  knowing  where  to  lay  hold,  has  attached 
itself  to  these  objects.  The  dread  of  death  which  we 
experience  comes  from  this  irregular  love,  and  thus  it 
is,  fundamentally,  the  primitive  dread  of  the  death  of 
the  soul,  turned  away  from  its  true  end  and  falsely 
applied  to  the  death  of  the  body.  There  can  then  be 
no  question  of  abolishing  it,  that  which,  besides,  would 
be  impossible,  but  only  of  restoring  it  to  its  true  form. 
In  proportion  as  we  dread  spiritual  death,  the  death  of 
the  body  will  inspire  us  with  less  of  terror. 

Do  we  mean,  he  goes  on,  that  we  shall  come  to 
regard  without  pain  the  death  of  one  who  is  dear  to 
us  ?  We  cannot,  and  we  ought  not.  For  the  action  of 
grace,  whereby  alone  we  detach  ourselves  from  our 
natural  impressions,  necessarily  clashes  with  the  oppos- 
ing effort  of  our  concupiscence ;  and  it  is  by  the  pain 
produced  by  the  latter  that  we  measure  the  progress 
of  the  former.  Let  us  then  weep  for  our  father ;  that 
is  right.  Let  us  be  consoled;  that  is  equally  right; 
and  let  the  consolation  of  grace  prevail  over  the  senti- 
ments of  nature. 

"  I  have  learnt  from  a  holy  man,"  says  Pascal,  "  that 
one  of  the  most  solid  and  useful  acts  of  charity  towards 
the  dead  is  to  do  the  thing  that  they  would  ask  us  to 
do  if  they  were  still  in  the  world,  and  to  practise  the 
holy  counsels  which  they  would  have  given  us,  and 
to  put  ourselves  for  them  in  the  condition  in  which 
they  now  wish  us.  By  such  practice  we  do,  in 
some  sort,  make  them  to  live  again  in  us,  since  it 


44  PASCAL 

is  their  counsels  which  are  still  living  and  acting 
in  us." 

Notwithstanding  these  sentiments,  which  undoubt- 
edly were  quite  sincere,  doubts  have  been  raised  as  to 
the  reality,  or  perhaps  the  depth,  of  Pascal's  spiritual 
life  at  this  time.  It  is,  in  fact,  not  quite  easy  for 
ourselves  to  assume  the  point  of  view  of  Pascal  and  his 
sister.  With  them  monastic  life  was  the  "religious" 
life;  whilst  we  might  regard  the  acceptance  of  the 
ordinary  Christian  life  in  the  world  as,  in  some  cases, 
a  really  higher  and  more  devoted  life  than  that  of 
the  cloister.  However  this  may  be,  there  was  at  this 
time  a  certain  separation  of  Pascal  and  his  sister.  He 
seemed  to  be  living  more  and  more  in  the  world, 
among  worldly  men,  and  for  the  world;  whilst  she 
was  entirely  separated,  from  the  time  of  her  conversion 
at  Rouen,  from  her  former  manner  of  life. 

Permitted  by  her  father  to  order  her  life  as  she 
pleased,  so  long  as  she  remained  in  his  family,  she 
adopted  a  rule  hardly  different  from  that  of  the  nun, 
wearing  a  peculiar  dress,  keeping  fasts  and  vigils, 
giving  much  time  to  spiritual  reading  and  meditation, 
and  employing  herself  in  manifold  acts  of  charity  and 
beneficence.  Her  brother,  on  the  contrary,  lived  less 
and  less  the  life  of  a  recluse,  became  intimate  with  free 
thinkers  and  free  livers,  and,  even  according  to  his  own 
judgment,  was  living  almost  without  God  in  the  world. 

It  was  therefore  not  unnatural  that  he  should 
oppose  his  sister's  entrance  to  the  convent,  and  do 
his  utmost  to  put  off  as  long  as  possible  her  assumption 
of  the  veil.  On  her  part  there  seems  to  have  been  no 
change  and  no  hesitation.  After  her  father's  death 
(September  1651)  she  announced  her  determination. 


SPIRITUAL  LIFE  45 

Her  brother  implored  her  to  postpone  her  "entrance 
into  religion  "  at  least  for  a  year  or  six  months.  But 
she  thought  such  delay  useless,  and  prepared  to 
separate  from  her  friends.  Her  sister  gives  a  very 
touching  account  of  her  last  moments  with  them. 
"  She  rose,  dressed,  and  went  away,  doing  this,  as  every- 
thing else,  with  a  tranquillity  and  equanimity  incon- 
ceivable. We  said  no  adieu  for  fear  of  breaking' down. 
I  only  turned  aside  when  I  saw  her  ready  to  go.  In 
this  manner  she  quitted  the  world  on  the  4th  of  Janu- 
ary 1652,  being  then  twenty-six  years  and  three 
months  old." 

After  a  year  of  novitiate,  she  prepared  to  make  her 
profession,  and  informed  her  brother  and  sister  of  her 
intention  of  giving  to  Port  Royal  that  part  of  the 
family  inheritance  which  fell  to  her.  This  purpose 
did  not  give  satisfaction  to  the  family,  who  united  in  a 
protest  against  her  alienating  to  strangers  what  they 
regarded  as  rightly  belonging  to  themselves.  But 
Jacqueline  was  a  thorough  Pascal,  affectionate  and 
tender  as  a  sister,  but  firm  as  a  rock  in  her  religious 
principles.  She  thought  their  way  of  looking  at  the 
matter  was  too  secular,  and  deeply  resented  the 
assumption  that  she  was  to  be  received  into  the 
Society  without  a  dower.  But  the  authorities  were 
stern  as  the  Pascals.  The  Mere  Agnes  treated  Jacque- 
line's scruples  almost  with  contempt.  What  did  it 
matter  to  them  whether  she  brought  money  with  her 
or  not  ?  Besides,  as  she  remarked  in  her  lofty  manner, 
they  ought  not  to  expect  from  a  worldly  man  a  move- 
ment of  true  charity. 

Such  arguments  may  have  satisfied  her  reason,  and 
at  last  she  resolved  that  there  should  be  no  impediment 


46  PASCAL 

to  her  religious  profession;  but  she  was  unable  to 
conceal  her  sorrow  and  chagrin  when  her  brother  came 
to  visit  her.  This,  she  says,  was  so  unlike  her  usual 
manner  that  he  perceived  something  to  be  wrong,  and 
speedily  guessed  the  cause ;  and  was  so  touched  by  her 
distress  that  "he  resolved  to  put  the  whole  affair  in 
order,"  offering  himself  to  convey  a  donation  to  Port 
Royal.  And  then  there  arose  difficulties  on  the  part 
of  the  Mothers.  They  could  not  accept  gifts  offered 
unwillingly.  One  ought  to  give,  they  said,  by  the 
Spirit  of  God;  if  not,  they  would  prefer  to  have 
nothing.  "  We  have  learnt,"  said  the  Mere  Angelique, 
"from  M.  de  St.  Cyran  to  receive  nothing  for  the 
House  of  God  which  does  not  come  from  God.  All 
that  is  done  from  any  other  motive  than  charity  is 
not  a  fruit  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  consequently  we 
ought  not  to  receive  it." 

The  matter  was,  however,  settled  satisfactorily  by  an 
assurance  on  the  part  of  Pascal  that  he  gave  in  the 
spirit  in  which  they  wished  to  receive,  regretting  that 
he  could  not  give  more.  The  profession  took  place 
5th  June  1653 ;  and  Pascal,  now  more  left  to  himself, 
seems  to  have  continued  the  manner  of  life  into  which 
he  had  fallen,  partly  from  his  inability  to  carry  on  his 
studies.  There  is  no  hint  of  any  irregularity  in  his  life, 
but  his  associations  and  his  employments  seem  to  have 
been  of  a  secular  character.  It  is  even  said  that  he 
united  mathematical  speculations  with  play.  As  these 
statements  rest  principally  upon  the  testimony  of 
Jacqueline,  we  must  not,  in  estimating  their  value, 
forget  the  point  of  view  from  which  her  judgments  are 
formed.  It  is  tolerably  clear  that  Pascal  had  not  kept 
up  the  ardour  of  his  "  first  conversion,"  and  that  he 


SPIRITUAL  LIFE  47 

had  not  attained  to  the  higher  level  of  his  later 
spiritual  experience.  It  is  quite  possible,  however, 
that  his  immediate  friends  and  relatives  may  have 
judged  too  unfavourably  of  his  actual  religious  con- 
dition. The  worst  probably  that  could  be  said  of  him 
was  that  his  associates  were  not  of  a  high  quality.  At 
the  same  time  there  is  evidence  that  Pascal  saw  the 
true  character  of  some  of  these  men,  and  perhaps 
learnt  something  from  them  which  he  afterwards 
turned  to  good  account,  whilst  he  never  really  became 
identified  with  them.  As  has  been  well  said,  "if  his 
feet  touched  for  a  moment  the  dirt  of  this  dissolute 
society,  his  divine  wings  remained  unsoiled." 

One  instance  of  his  intercourse  with  men  of  the 
world  may  be  referred  to.  In  the  year  1652  he  made 
a  journey  in  Poitou  along  with  the  Due  de  Roannez 
and  M.  Mere,  who  thought  of  him  as  a  mere  mathe- 
matician who  had  little  acquaintance  with  the  ways  of 
the  world  and  the  tastes  of  men  of  rank.  These  men 
were  much  amused  at  the  manner  in  which  Pascal 
introduced  arguments  from  geometry  into  their  ordi- 
nary conversation;  and  it  is  said  that  by  degrees 
Pascal  came  to  see  that  such  conversation  was  unsuited 
to  his  companions. 

It  would,  however,  appear  that  Pascal  stimulated 
thought  on  the  part  of  some  of  these  men.  For 
example,  M.  Mere,  writing  to  Pascal,  reminded  him 
that  his  mathematical  demonstrations,  in  which  he  had 
so  much  confidence,  are  merely  ideal,  applicable  to 
what  he  calls  fictions,  and  quite  unable  to  make  us 
understand  real  things ;  that,  when  a  man  has  a  lively 
mind  and  keen  eyes,  he  remarks  at  once  in  objects  a 
quantity  of  things  that  a  geometrician  will  never  see ; 


48  PASCAL 

that  there  are  thus  two  methods,  demonstrations  and 
natural  sentiment,  the  latter  very  superior  to  the 
former;  and  that  there  are  two  worlds,  the  material, 
which  is  prescribed  to  the  senses  and  to  calculation, 
and  another  invisible,  and,  in  truth,  infinite,  in  which 
is  found  the  ideal  and  the  true  originals  of  all  that  we 
seek  to  know.  One  can  trace  the  effect  of  remarks 
like  these  in  the  subsequent  meditations  of  Pascal. 

Under  these  various  influences  Pascal  entered  upon 
studies  of  a  less  abstract  character,  his  favourite  authors 
being  Epictetus  and  Montaigne,  whilst  the  writings  of 
Descartes  assumed  for  him  a  new  significance,  and  led 
him  to  the  contemplation  of  the  greatness  of  human 
thought  and  of  the  spirit  of  man.  It  must  have  been 
about  this  time  that  he  composed  his  striking  Discourse 
on  the  Passions1  of  Love,  which  remained  unknown 
until  it  was  discovered  by  Victor  Cousin  the  philosopher. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  this  fragment  is  from  the 
hand  of  Pascal,  external  and  internal  evidence  being 
alike  conclusive  on  the  subject.  The  very  beginning 
has  the  note  of  the  great  writer:  "Man  is  born  to 
think;  he  is  never  for  a  moment  without  doing  so. 
But  mere  thoughts,  which  would  render  him  happy  if 
he  could  always  sustain  them,  fatigue  and  depress  him. 
To  such  a  life  he  could  not  accommodate  himself,  he 
has  need  of  movement  and  action ;  that  is  to  say,  he 
needs  to  be  agitated  by  the  passions  of  which  he  feels 
deep  and  living  sources  in  his  heart.  The  passions 
which  are  most  proper  to  man,  and  which  contain 
many  others,  are  love  and  ambition ;  they  have  but 

1  "The  passions,  and  not  the  passion.  The  passions,  that  is,  the 
accidents,  the  symptoms,  rh,  Tr6.8-rj.  It  is  a  kind  of  moral  pathology  of 
love." — Havet. 


SPIRITUAL  LIFE  49 

little  connection,  yet  they  are  frequently  united ;  but 
they  mutually  weaken,  not  to  say  ruin,  each  other. 

"  However  spacious  the  mind  may  be,  it  is  capable 
of  only  one  great  passion;  and  so,  when  love  and 
ambition  meet,  they  are  only  half  as  great  as  they 
would  be  if  only  one  were  there.  Age  determines 
neither  the  beginning  nor  the  end  of  these  two  pas- 
sions ;  they  are  born  with  our  earliest  years,  and  they 
often  subsist  to  the  grave.  .  .  . 

"  How  happy  is  a  life  when  it  begins  with  love  and 
ends  with  ambition.  If  I  had  to  choose  my  life,  I 
should  take  that.  .  .  .  We  are  born  with  a  character 
of  love  in  our  hearts,  which  develops  itself  in  propor- 
tion as  the  mind  perfects  itself,  and  which  carries  us 
on  to  love  that  which  seems  to  us  beautiful  without 
anyone  having  told  us  what  it  is.  Who  doubts  after 
that  if  we  are  in  the  world  for  any  other  reason  than 
to  love  ?  .  .  .  A  man  does  not  like  to  remain  by  him- 
self. Yet  he  loves.  He  must  therefore  seek  elsewhere 
for  an  object  of  love.  He  can  find  it  only  in  beauty ; 
but  as  he  is  himself  the  most  beautiful  creature  that 
God  has  ever  formed,  he  must  find  in  himself  the 
pattern  of  that  beauty  which  he  seeks  without  him.  .  .  . 
For  this  reason  the  beauty  which  can  satisfy  a  man 
consists  not  only  in  correspondence,  but  also  in  resem- 
blance ;  it  is  restrained  and  confirmed  in  the  difference 
of  sex.  .  .  . 

"Beauty  is  shared  in  a  thousand  different  ways. 
The  most  suitable  embodiment  of  beauty  is  a  woman. 
When  she  has  intelligence,  she  imparts  to  it  marvellous 
life  and  elevation.  If  a  woman  wishes  to  please,  and 
possesses  the  advantages  of  beauty,  or,  at  least,  a  part 
of  them,  she  will  succeed.  .  .  . 
4 


50  PASCAL 

"  Love  is  of  no  age ;  it  is  always  being  born.  The 
poets  have  told  us  so.  That  is  why  they  represent 
love  as  a  child.  .  .  .  Man  alone  is  something  imperfect. 
In  order  to  be  happy  he  must  find  another.  This 
union  he  usually  seeks  in  equality  of  condition,  because 
in  this  he  finds  greater  liberty  and  facility  for  the 
manifestations  of  affection.  Yet  sometimes  one  rises 
above  himself  and  love  burns  high,  although  he  does 
not  dare  to  make  it  known  to  her  who  has  caused  it. 
When  one  loves  a  lady  who  is  not  of  one's  own  rank, 
ambition  may  accompany  the  beginning  of  love ;  but  in 
a  short  time  love  becomes  the  master.  He  is  a  tyrant 
who  allows  of  no  rival.  He  wills  to  be  alone ;  and  all 
other  passions  must  yield  to  him  and  obey  him.  ... 

"  The  pleasure  of  loving  without  daring  to  tell  it  has 
its  pains,  but  it  has  also  its  sweetnesses.  With  what 
transport  do  we  shape  all  our  actions  in  order  to  please 
one  for  whom  we  have  a  boundless  esteem !  .  .  .  The 
first  effect  of  love  is  to  inspire  a  great  respect.  We 
venerate  that  which  we  love ;  and  that  is  quite  right. 
Nothing  in  the  world  can  be  thought  so  great.  ...  In 
love,  silence  is  more  powerful  than  language.  It  is 
good  to  be  silent.  In  this  there  is  an  eloquence  which 
penetrates  more  deeply  than  language.  .  .  .  The  attach- 
ment to  that  which  we  love  gives  birth  to  qualities 
which  we  did  not  previously  possess.  One  becomes 
magnificent  without  having  been  so  before.  Even  a 
miser  who  loves  becomes  liberal,  and  he  does  not  re- 
member having  ever  been  of  a  different  disposition. 
We  understand  the  reason  of  this  when  we  consider 
that  there  are  passions  which  shut  up  the  soul  and 
render  it  torpid,  while  there  are  others  that  enlarge  it 
and  make  it  expand.  .  .  . 


SPIRITUAL  LIFE  51 

"At  a  distance  from  that  which  we  love  we  form 
resolutions  to  do  or  to  say  many  things ;  but  when  we 
come  near,  we  become  irresolute.  How  is  this  ?  The 
reason  is  simple.  At  a  distance  the  reason  is  not  so 
much  disturbed,  but  it  is  strangely  so  in  the  presence 
of  the  object  of  our  affection.  Now,  for  resolution  we 
need  firmness,  and  this  is  ruined  by  any  disturbance." 

This  fragment,  obviously  incomplete  in  parts,  un- 
doubtedly belongs  to  the  year  1652  or  1653,  when 
Pascal  was  twenty-nine  or  thirty  years  of  age.  Cer- 
tain inferences  have  been  drawn  from  the  contents  of 
this  "  discourse."  It  is  clear,  we  are  told  by  some,  that 
a  lady  of  high  rank  had  touched  the  heart  of  Pascal ; 
and  this  does  not  appear  improbable.  Assuredly  there 
are  sentences  here  which  seem  to  betray  more  than  a 
merely  speculative  acquaintance  with  the  passion  of 
which  he  speaks ;  and  there  are  two  or  three  sentences 
which  favour  the  theory  to  which  we  have  just  referred. 
Some  have  gone  so  far  as  to  identify  the  object  of 
Pascal's  affection  with  the  sister  of  his  friend,  the  Due 
de  Roannez,  then  a  girl  of  scarcely  twenty  years  of 
age,  whilst  others  have  regarded  such  a  notion  as  most 
improbable.  The  subject  has  been  warmly  discussed, 
as  though  the  character  of  Pascal  were  involved  in  the 
conclusion.  It  is  not  possible,  in  the  present  state  of 
our  information,  to  decide  either  way,  and  it  is  of  no 
great  importance  to  do  so. 

We  have  already  seen  that  the  period  following  upon 
the  time  just  described  was  that  of  his  principal  dis- 
coveries in  mathematics.  But  it  is  also  clear  that  his 
spiritual  condition  was  not  satisfactory  to  his  sister, 
nor  even  to  himself ;  and  he  began  to  ask  whether  he 
might  not  obtain  a  larger  degree  of  satisfaction  from 


52  PASCAL 

higher  things.  The  longer  he  thought  on  the  things 
of  the  world,  the  less  satisfaction  he  found  in  them. 
Moreover,  he  saw  in  his  sister's  life  at  Port  Royal  an 
example  of  steadfast  faith  and  constancy  of  purpose 
which  contrasted  strongly  with  his  own  unsettled  and 
unsatisfactory  state  of  mind.  In  the  words  of  Madame 
Perier,  "  God  was  calling  him  to  a  great  perfection,"  and 
"  He  made  use  of  my  sister  for  this  purpose  as  He  had 
formerly  made  use  of  my  brother  when  He  chose  to 
withdraw  my  sister  from  the  engagements  which  she 
had  formed  in  the  world.  She  was  then  in  religion 
[a  nun],  and  she  led  a  life  so  holy  that  she  edified  the 
whole  house ;  and  being  in  this  state,  she  was  pained 
to  see  that  he  to  whom,  under  God,  she  was  indebted 
for  the  graces  which  she  enjoyed,  was  not  himself  in 
possession  of  these  graces  ;  and  as  my  brother  often  saw 
her,  she  often  spoke  to  him  on  the  subject ;  and  finally 
did  so  with  so  much  power  and  sweetness  that  she 
persuaded  him,  as  he  had  first  persuaded  her,  absolutely 
to  leave  the  world;  so  that  he  resolved  entirely  to 
abandon  all  secular  intercourse  and  to  cut  off  all  the 
superfluities  of  life  which  might  interfere  with  the 
work  of  his  salvation,  since  he  believed  that  salvation 
was  superior  to  all  other  things.  He  was  then  thirty 
years  of  age,  and  he  was  always  in  poor  health ;  and 
it  was  from  this  time  that  he  embraced  the  manner  of 
life  in  which  he  persisted  until  his  death."  It  is  un- 
necessary here  to  draw  attention  to  the  monastic  point 
of  view  of  the  writer,  as  it  meets  us  continually  in 
Pascal's  history. 

We  learn  from  a  letter  of  Jacqueline  Pascal  to  her 
sister,  written  25th  January  1655,  that  her  brother  had 
paid  her  a  visit  in  the  previous  month  of  September, 


SPIRITUAL  LIFE  53 

and  had  made  known  to  her  the  state  of  his  mind; 
confessing  that  in  the  midst  of  his  numerous  occupations 
and  among  all  the  things  that  might  contribute  to 
make  him  love  the  world,  he  felt  such  an  aversion  for 
all  those  objects  to  which  his  heart  was  attached,  and 
experienced  such  torments  of  conscience,  that  he  had 
the  strongest  desire  to  leave  it  all.  And  assuredly,  he 
said,  he  had  such  a  longing  for  this  that  he  would 
long  ago  have  carried  this  resolution  into  effect  if  God 
had  granted  him  the  same  grace  as  hitherto,  and  given 
him  the  same  movements  towards  Himself.  But  God 
seemed  to  have  abandoned  him  to  his  weakness. 

Such  a  confession  filled  his  sister  with  surprise  and 
delight,  which  she  communicated  to  her  sister  Mme. 
Perier,  entreating  her  to  help,  by  her  prayers,  that  God 
might  continue  the  work  which  He  had  manifestly 
begun.  At  the  same  time  she  commended  him  to  the 
sympathy  and  prayers  of  Port  Royal.  The  work  was 
not  brought  to  completion  all  at  once.  Pascal  was 
convinced  of  the  necessity  of  a  change  which  should 
lead  to  undoubting  faith.  But  his  heart  for  a  time 
refused  to  obey  his  reason.  He  strove  passionately  to 
create  a  new  habit  of  mind,  a  new  direction  of  will,  not 
fully  sensible  of  his  dependence  upon  divine  grace  for 
the  power  that  would  change  the  heart.  By  degrees 
he  learnt  that  reason  and  practice  by  themselves  were 
inadequate.  By  degrees  he  learnt  not  only  to  despise 
the  world,  but  to  love  God ;  but  the  victory  for  a  time 
was  incomplete. 

Various  causes  are  assigned  as  having  assisted  to 
bring  about  a  decision.  A  sermon  by  M.  Singlin  in 
November  1654  is  said  to  have  produced  a  great  effect 
upon  him.  The  preacher  insisted  upon  the  necessity 


54  PASCAL 

of  entire  surrender  to  God,  and  pointed  out  that  the 
power  to  effect  such  a  change  must  come  from  God. 
Shortly  after  this  Pascal  is  said  to  have  fallen  into  a 
kind  of  trance,  in  which  he  had  a  very  vivid  impression 
of  the  presence  of  God,  and  seemed  to  be  illuminated  by 
a  supernatural  fire. 

Another  incident  is  on  record  as  having  formed  an 
important  turning-point  in  his  spiritual  history — an 
accident  by  which  his  life  was  gravely  endangered. 
It  is  assigned  to  the  month  of  October  1654,  shortly 
after  his  interview  with  his  sister  Jacqueline.  One 
day,  it  is  said,  he  was  driving  to  the  bridge  of  Neuilly 
in  a  carriage  and  four,  when  the  two  leading  horses 
became  restive,  and  turning  off  the  road  sprang  into 
the  Seine.  Happily  the  traces  broke,  so  that  the 
carriage  was  not  dragged  after  them.  In  his  weak 
state  of  health  Pascal  was  so  powerfully  affected  by 
the  accident  that  he  fainted  away,  and  was  with 
difficulty  restored,  whilst  the  sense  of  danger  remained 
with  him  for  long  afterwards. 

There  is  no  necessary  contradiction  between  these 
various  accounts.  Pascal's  visit  to  his  sister  in 
September  may  certainly  be  reckoned  as  a  turning- 
point  in  his  history ;  and  as  it  was  at  that  time  that 
he  revealed  to  her  his  state  of  mind,  it  was  quite 
natural  that  she  should  dwell  upon  it  and  say  nothing 
of  those  other  incidents  of  the  sermon  by  M.  Singlin, 
and  the  accident  to  the  carriage;  but  we  may  well 
believe  that  these  things,  happening  at  the  time  when 
Pascal  was  under  deep  religious  impressions,  contributed 
to  his  final  decision. 

When  at  last  he  took  the  decisive  step, — known  as 
his  second  or  final  conversion, — by  his  sister's  advice  he 


SPIRITUAL  LIFE  55 

placed  himself  under  the  direction  of  M.  de  Saci  of 
Port  Royal.  His  sister,  when  he  hesitated  on  this 
point,  said :  "  I  saw  clearly  that  this  was  only  a  remnant 
of  independence  hidden  in  the  depth  of  his  heart, 
which  armed  itself  with  every  weapon  to  ward  off  a 
submission  which  yet  in  his  state  of  feeling  must  be 
perfect." 

Pascal  first  left  Paris  because  the  Due  de  Roannez 
was  about  to  return  there,  and  he  did  not  wish  to  fall 
again  under  his  influence.  Unable  to  accommodate 
himself  in  a  country  house,  he  got  a  chamber  or  cell 
among  the  Solitaries  of  Port  Royal  which  met  all  his 
needs.  Speaking  of  his  life  there  in  a  letter  to 
Madame  Pe'rier,  Jacqueline  says :  "  He  joins  in  every 
office  of  the  Church  from  Prime  to  Compline  without 
experiencing  the  least  inconvenience  in  rising  at  five 
o'clock  in  the  morning;  and,  as  if  it  was  the  will  of 
God  that  he  should  join  fasting  to  watching,  in  defiance 
of  all  the  medical  prescriptions  which  had  forbidden 
him  both,  he  found  that  supper  disagreed  with  him,  and 
was  about  to  give  it  up." 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  of  interest  to  give  a 
paper  drawn  up  by  Pascal,  probably  a  memorial  of 
his  conversion,  and  afterwards  used  for  purposes  of 
self-examination  and  meditation. 


Year  of  Grace  1654. 
Monday,  November  23,  Day  of  St.  Clement,  Pope  and  Martyr, 

and  of  others  in  the  martyrology. 

Eve  of  St.  Chrysogonus,  martyr,  and  others. 

From  about  half -past  ten  o'clock  in  the  evening,  to  about 

half -past  twelve. 


56  PASCAL 

Fire. 
God  of  Abraham,  God  of  Isaac,  God  of  Jacob, 

not  of  Philosophers  and  Scholars. 
Certitude.     Certitude.     Sentiment.    Joy.     Peace. 
God  of  Jesus  Christ, 
My  God  and  your  God. 
Thy  God  will  be  my  God. 
Forgetfulness  of  the  world  and  of  all  save  God. 
He  is  found  only  by  the  ways  taught  in  the  Gospel. 

Greatness  of  the  human  soul. 

Righteous  Father,  the  world  hath  not  known  Thee  ; 

but  I  have  known  Thee. 

Joy,  Joy,  Joy,  tears  of  joy. 

I  separated  myself  from  Him. 

They  have  forsaken  Me  the  fountain  of  living  water, 
My  God,  wilt  Thou  forsake  me  1 
May  I  not  be  separated  from  Him  eternally. 

This  is  life  eternal,  that  they  might  know  Thee,  the  only 

true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  Thou  hast  sent. 

Jesus  Christ. 

Jesus  Christ. 

I  separated  myself  from  Him  ;  I  fled  from  Him,  renounced, 

crucified. 

He  is  retained  only  by  the  ways  taught  in  the  Gospel, 
Renunciation  complete  and  sweet,  etc. 


CHAPTER  IV 

PORT  ROYAL 

THE  abbey  of  Port  Royal  was  a  convent  for  women 
of  the  Cistercian  Order,  situated  near  Chevreuse,  about 
eight  miles  south-west  from  Versailles  and  eighteen 
miles  from  Paris.  It  occupied  a  marshy  site  in  the 
valley  of  the  Yvette,  near  Marly.  It  was  one  of  the 
most  ancient  houses  of  the  Order,  having  been  founded 
at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Its  name 
was  derived  from  that  of  the  district,  "  Porrois,"  which 
is  said  to  be  a  corruption  of  Porra  or  Borra,  meaning 
a  marshy  and  woody  hollow.  According  to  a  late 
tradition,  it  has  its  name  from  being  founded  by  Philip 
Augustus ;  it  was,  in  fact,  founded  in  1204  by  Mathilde 
de  Garlande,  wife  of  Matthieu  de  Montmorenci-Marli, 
during  his  absence  on  the  fourth  crusade.  The  church 
and  monastery  were  the  work  of  the  same  architect  who 
built  Notre  Dame  of  Amiens.  Among  other  privileges, 
this  monastery  had  the  right  to  afford  a  retreat  to 
persons  who  wished  to  retire  from  the  world  without 
binding  themselves  by  vows. 

It  was  with  Port  Royal  as  with  many  of  the  religious 
houses  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Noted  at  first  for  the 
strictness  of  its  rule  and  the  devotion  of  its  inmates,  it 
fell  into  disorder,  and  became  distinguished  for  its 

57 


58  PASCAL 

irregularities.  At  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century  it  numbered  twelve  nuns  "masked  and 
gloved  " — women  of  the  world,  whilst  the  abbess  was 
a  little  girl  eleven  years  old.  This  girl  was  Jacqueline 
Marie  Arnauld,  afterwards  known  as  La  Mere  Angeli- 
que,  who  had  been  appointed  to  the  office  at  the  age  of 
eight.  She  belonged  to  a  noble  family  of  Provence, 
already  mentioned,  who  had  settled  in  Auvergne; 
and  her  grandfather,  Antoine  Arnauld,  Seigneur  de 
la  Mothe,  generally  known  as  M.  de  la  Mothe,  was 
procureur-ge'neral  to  Catherine  de  Medicis.  He  was  a 
Huguenot,  and  nearly  perished  in  the  massacre  of  St. 
Bartholomew.  His  second  son  was  a  man  even  more 
distinguished  than  his  father  for  ability  and  eloquence. 
If  the  Huguenot  principles  of  the  father  were  a  kind 
of  prediction  of  the  tendencies  of  his  descendants,  no 
less  did  the  son  come  into  collision  with  the  Order  of 
which  the  family  were  to  be  the  steadfast  opponents. 
He  was  counsel  for  the  University  of  Paris  when  it 
was  attempted  to  expel  the  Jesuits  from  France  under 
suspicion  of  having  plotted  against  the  life  of  Henry  IV. 
This  has  been  called  the  "  original  sin  "  of  the  Arnaulds, 
and  the  Jesuits  never  forgot  it. 

Antoine  Arnauld  married  the  daughter  of  Marion  the 
avocat-general,  and  had  twenty  children ;  for  two  of 
whom,  through  the  influence  of  his  father-in-law,  he 
found  provision  in  the  monastic  establishments  of  the 
Church.  Angelique,  the  second  child,  became  a  nun  in 
Port  Royal  when  only  eight  years  of  age,  and  Agnes  in 
the  abbey  of  St.  Cyr,  about  six  miles  distant  from  Port 
Royal,  when  only  six  years  of  age.  The  youngest  of 
the  children  was  Antoine,  afterwards  known  as  the 
great  Arnauld.  The  eldest  was  known  as  M.  d'Andilly. 


PORT  ROYAL  59 

The  two  sisters,  while  very  different,  were  both  women 
of  mark.  The  Mere  Agnes  shrank  from  exercising  her 
powers  as  abbess,  more  ready  to  feel  her  responsibility 
than  to  assert  her  authority.  Angelique,  on  the  con- 
trary, who  had  been  installed  as  abbess  at  the  age  of 
eleven,  was  ever  ready  to  exercise  the  powers  committed 
to  her  as  head  of  her  community.  Yet  neither  of  them 
had  any  very  deep  sense  of  the  work  which  they  had 
undertaken. 

It  was  in  1608,  when  Angelique  was  about  sixteen 
years  of  age,  that  she  heard  a  sermon  from  a  Capuchin 
friar,  strangely,  a  man  of  loose  character,  who  happened 
to  be  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  preached  on  the  happi- 
ness of  the  religious  life  and  the  sanctity  of  the  rule  of 
St.  Benedict.  By  this  instrumentality  it  pleased  God 
to  touch  her  heart,  and  she  resolved  to  reform  her 
abbey.  She  imposed  upon  herself  and  led  her  nuns 
to  accept  the  rule  of  the  community  of  goods,  fasting, 
abstinence,  silence,  vigils,  mortification,  in  short  all 
the  austerities  of  the  rule  of  St.  Benedict.  But  the 
principal  point  in  her  reform  was  the  absolute  ex- 
clusion of  the  world  from  her  monastery. 

Acting  on  this  principle,  she  gave  notice  that  the 
nuns  could,  in  future,  see  their  relatives  only  in  the  par- 
lour, and  that  no  visitor  could  be  allowed  to  enter  the 
interior  of  the  monastery.  A  somewhat  painful  appli- 
cation of  the  rule  occurred  before  long.  On  23rd  Sep- 
tember 1609  her  father  and  mother  presented  themselves 
at  the  gate  with  the  view  of  paying  a  visit  to  their 
daughter.  The  Mere  Angelique  opened  the  wicket, 
and  asked  her  parents  to  come  into  the  parlour,  so 
that  she  might,  across  the  grating,  explain  to  them  the 
nature  of  her  resolutions.  Then  having  perceived, 


60  PASCAL 

behind  the  grating,  the  changed  and  sorrowful  features 
of  her  father,  she  had  to  listen  to  a  touching  remon- 
strance from  his  lips,  which  deprived  her  of  all  power  of 
reply,  and  so  profoundly  affected  her  that  she  fell  faint- 
ing at  his  feet.  This  put  an  end  to  the  controversy. 
From  that  day,  called  in  the  annals  of  Port  Royal  "  the 
Day  of  the  Wicket "  (la  journte  du  guichet),  the  mem- 
bers of  her  family  were  her  most  constant  supporters. 

In  a  short  time  the  character  of  the  monastery  was 
entirely  changed.  Its  reputation  extended  far  and 
wide.  When  St.  Frangois  de  Sales,  the  gentle  and 
devout  bishop  of  Geneva,  came  to  visit  the  Mere 
Angelique,  he  was  so  charmed  with  the  state  of  the 
monastery  that  he  spoke  of  it  henceforth  as  his  "  dear 
delight " ;  and  at  the  request  of  the  abbess  he  gave 
those  spiritual  directions  which  have  guided  so  many 
souls  since  that  time. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  abbey  of  Port  Royal 
became  too  small  for  its  inmates.  It  had  been  built 
for  twelve,  and  the  numbers  grew  to  no  fewer  than 
eighty.  The  situation,  moreover,  being  in  a  swamp 
and  undrained,  became  most  unhealthy.  A  number  of 
the  members  were  always  ill ;  fevers  were  constant,  and 
deaths  frequent.  Fifteen  died  in  two  years.  Help 
came  from  Madame  Arnauld,  the  mother  of  the  Mere 
Angelique,  who  had  been  left  a  widow  in  1619,  and  in 
good  circumstances.  To  provide  for  the  community 
she  purchased  in  1625  a  large  house  with  extensive 
grounds,  called  the  H6tel  Clagny,  in  the  Faubourg  St. 
Jacques,  in  Paris.  This  became  known  as  Port  Royal 
de  Paris,  whilst  the  old  monastery  was  called  Port 
Royal  des  Champs ;  and  both  were  regarded  as  parts 
of  one  institution.  The  Mere  Angelique  now  obtained 


PORT  ROYAL  61 

a  royal  charter,  in  accordance  with  which  the  abbess, 
instead  of  being  appointed  for  life  by  the  king,  was  to 
be  elected  every  three  years  by  the  nuns.  It  should 
here  be  mentioned  that  the  old  monastery  was  occupied 
by  a  number  of  men  who,  under  the  name  of  Solitaries, 
became  no  less  famous  than  the  nuns  of  Port  Royal. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  and  influential  of  those 
connected  with  Port  Royal  was  Jean  du  Vergier  de 
Hauranne,  abbot  of  St.  Cyran,  commonly  known  as  M. 
de  St.  Cyran,  who  became  director  of  the  nuns  of  Port 
Royal  about  ten  years  after  their  removal  to  Paris; 
and  his  influence  on  the  destinies  of  Port  Royal  was  so 
great  that  something  may  here  be  said  of  him. 

Jean  Baptiste  du  Vergier  de  Hauranne,  latterly 
known  as  M.  de  St.  Cyran,  was  born  at  Bayonne  in 
1581,  four  years  before  Jansenius.  He  was  educated 
at  Paris  and  Louvain,  and  at  the  latter  university 
he  had  Jansenius  for  his  fellow  -  student.  Drawn 
together  by  a  similarity  of  tastes  and  pursuits,  and 
being  nearly  of  the  same  age,  they  contracted  a  friend- 
ship which  was  consolidated  by  a  common  devotion  to 
the  service  of  God. 

Jansenius,  by  his  ardour  in  his  studies,  had  injured 
his  health ;  and  on  leaving  college  he  was  recommended 
to  try  the  air  of  France.  His  friend  invited  him  to 
join  him  at  Bayonne,  where  they  returned  to  their 
joint  studies  of  theology,  of  the  Scriptures,  of  the 
Fathers,  and  especially  of  St.  Augustine.  This  Father, 
they  would  have  confessed,  was  more  to  them  than  all 
the  Fathers ;  their  adversaries  maintained  that  he  was 
more  to  them  than  the  Catholic  Church;  and  even 
that  their  own  interpretation  of  St.  Augustine  was 
more. 


62  PASCAL 

When  Jansenius  was  made  bishop  of  Ypres  they 
continued  their  correspondence.  They  were  both  men 
of  great  learning ;  but  their  learning  was  subordinated 
to  their  study  of  the  Scriptures.  Both  obtained  the 
greatest  influence  from  the  sanctity  of  their  lives,  and 
in  Paris  St.  Cyran  was  sought  out  alike  by  the  re- 
ligious and  by  men  of  the  world — among  others  by  the 
great  Cardinal  Richelieu.  Eight  times  he  was  offered 
a  bishopric;  but  he  would  accept  no  higher  prefer- 
ment than  that  of  abbot  of  St.  Cyran. 

During  his  residence  in  Paris  he  had  formed  a  close 
acquaintance  with  M.  Arnauld  d'Andilly,  the  eldest 
brother  of  the  Mere  Angelique,  who  introduced  him  to 
his  sister.  Soon  afterwards  he  became  director  of 
Port  Royal,  and  for  a  time  all  went  well.  But  the 
Jesuits,  who  had  long  regarded  Jansenius  as  their  foe, 
on  his  death,  transferred  their  enmity  to  St.  Cyran. 
Among  other  offences,  it  was  reported  that  he  had 
taught  that  a  mere  abstinence  from  outward  sin  from 
a  fear  of  punishment  was  no  certain  proof  of  a  real  con- 
version. In  such  a  case,  he  said,  there  must  be  a 
sorrow  for  sin  arising  from  a  love  of  God,  and  from 
the  sense  of  having  offended  Him.  In  theological 
language  St.  Cyran  had  declared  for  the  necessity  of 
contrition  and  not  merely  attrition. 

Here  he  touched  more  than  the  Jesuits.  Richelieu, 
when  bishop  of  Lugon,  had  drawn  up  a  catechism  for 
the  use  of  his  diocese  in  which  he  maintained  the 
doctrine  which  St.  Cyran  now  assailed.  The  Cardinal 
was  as  jealous  of  his  theology  as  of  his  political  power, 
and  was  incensed  at  St.  Cyran's  teaching  the  necessity 
of  contrition  as  well  as  attrition.  Moreover,  Richelieu 
had  hoped  to  gain  the  support  of  the  saintly  abbot  of 


PORT  ROYAL  63 

St.  Cyran  in  another  matter  of  doubtful  propriety; 
but  St.  Cyran  declined  to  mix  in  the  matter.  About 
this  time  the  Jansenist  controversy  arose,  and  Richelieu 
took  the  opportunity  of  expelling  St.  Cyran's  friends 
from  Port  Royal,  and  shutting  up  their  director  in  the 
prison  of  Vincennes,  14th  May  1638. 

It  was  a  hard  discipline  to  which  St.  Cyran  had  to 
submit.  For  a  time  he  was  deprived  of  his  books,  of 
papers,  pens,  and  ink,  cut  off  from  all  intercourse  with 
his  friends,  and  even  insufficiently  provided  with  food. 
He  bore  his  imprisonment  with  the  greatest  patience 
and  resignation.  "I  complain  of  nothing,"  he  said. 
"  I  am  willing  to  remain  here  a  hundred  years,  and  die 
here,  if  God  wills."  After  a  time  his  books  were 
restored,  and  some  of  his  most  valuable  works  were 
written  in  his  prison.  Soon  his  influence  was  felt 
within  the  walls  of  Vincennes,  whilst  it  was  diffused 
among  his  disciples  without.  His  imprisonment  lasted 
five  years,  until  the  death  of  Richelieu,  December  1642, 
soon  after  which  event  he  was  released,  February 
1643,  although  he  never  recovered  his  health;  and  he 
survived  his  relief  from  captivity  only  a  few  months. 

So  much  of  St.  Cyran  personally.  We  now  return 
to  the  abbey  of  Port  Royal. 

It  was  the  great  aim  of  Jansenius  to  restore  the 
teaching  of  Augustine  to  a  place  of  authority  in  the 
Church,  in  opposition  to  what  he  regarded  as  the 
Semi-Pelagianism  of  the  Jesuits.  St.  Cyran  had  just 
parted  from  Jansenius,  with  whose  principles  he  was 
in  full  accord,  and  M.  d'Andilly  had  lost  a  spiritual 
guide  in  the  pious  bishop  of  Geneva;  so  that  a  firm 
friendship  sprang  up  between  them. 

For  some  time  the  Mere  Angelique  and  M.  de  St. 


64  PASCAL 

Cyran  were  acquainted  without  attaining  to  any  degree 
of  intimacy.  But  about  ten  years  after  the  removal  of 
the  nuns  to  Paris,  M.  de  St.  Cyran  was  appointed  rector 
of  an  institution  in  which  the  Mere  Angelique  was 
deeply  interested.  She  is  said  to  have  recognised  in  him 
a  spirit  akin  to  that  of  St.  Fra^ois  de  Sales,  at  the 
same  time  that  she  became  impressed  with  a  sense  of 
his  great  ability.  We  might  say  that  we  have  here 
the  introduction  of  the  Jansenist  influence  which  in  the 
future  was  to  be  dominant  in  Port  Royal.  Deeply  con- 
scious of  the  evils  by  which  the  Church  was  afflicted, 
St.  Cyran's  hope  for  its  purification  and  recovery  lay 
in  a  purity  of  teaching  and  a  holiness  of  life ;  and  he 
saw  in  Port  Royal  a  centre  from  which  such  a  work 
could  be  carried  on.  St.  Cyran  was  succeeded,  in  1643, 
by  M.  Singlin,  who  carried  on  the  work  for  some  time 
and  then  handed  it  over  to  M.  de  Saci,  a  nephew  of  the 
Mere  Angelique. 

Another  important  work  of  St.  Cyran  was  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  male  community  in  connection  with  Port 
Royal.  It  began  with  some  members  of  the  Arnauld 
family  who  desired  to  retire  from  the  world  and  give 
themselves  up  to  the  service  of  God.  Under  the  in- 
fluence of  St.  Cyran,  Antoine  le  Maitre,  a  nephew  of 
the  Mere  Angelique,  in  1637  resolved  to  give  up  his 
profession  as  an  advocate  and  retire  from  the  world. 
He  was  joined  by  a  number  of  young  men ;  first  by  his 
younger  brothers,  Simon  de  Sericourt  and  Louis  Isaac, 
subsequently  known  under  the  name  of  de  Saci.  They 
afterwards  added  to  their  number  Arnauld  d'Andilly, 
Antoine  Arnauld  (the  great  Arnauld),  and  Nicole, 
author  of  the  Essays  on  Morality.  They  lived  to- 
gether at  first  in  Paris ;  but,  their  house  proving  too 


PORT  ROYAL  65 

small,  they  removed  in  1638  to  Port  Royal  des  Champs, 
which  had  been  vacated  by  the  nuns. 

If  the  state  of  the  monastery  had  been  bad  before 
the  removal  of  the  nuns,  it  was  much  worse  now.  The 
marshes  were  poisonous  and  infested  with  reptiles, 
and  part  of  the  buildings  had  fallen  down.  But  the 
members  of  the  new  society  speedily  wrought  a  change 
in  the  aspect  of  things.  Order  and  health  soon  pre- 
vailed where  before  was  disorder  and  disease.  The 
society  had  no  special  rules  or  vows.  Its  members  had 
come  together  to  separate  themselves  from  the  world, 
to  serve  God,  and  to  help  their  fellow-men.  They 
had  no  peculiar  dress,  except  that  their  garments  were 
plain,  coarse,  and  clean.  Day  and  night  they  met  for 
common  prayer  in  the  church. 

St.  Cyran,  although  for  several  years  imprisoned  in 
Vincennes,  yet  continued  his  guidance  of  the  convent 
by  correspondence  with  M.  Singlin,  although  the 
humility  and  diffidence  of  the  latter  made  him  glad 
to  transmit  his  office  to  M.  de  Saci.  The  administra- 
tion of  St.  Cyran  was  so  careful  that  everyone  was 
said  to  be  appointed  to  the  office  for  which  he  was 
best  qualified ;  and  no  one  refused  the  work  to  which 
he  was  called,  whether  that  work  was  intellectual  or 
physical. 

Under  this  management  the  reputation  of  Port  Royal 
spread  abroad  in  all  directions,  and  men  of  the  highest 
rank  requested  the  "Solitaries"  to  undertake  the 
education  of  their  children.  Neighbouring  proprietors 
made  over  to  them  houses  and  lands  to  be  turned  into 
schoolrooms  and  playgrounds ;  and  schools  under  their 
control  were  set  up  in  various  parts  of  the  country. 
From  these  schools  came  forth  men  of  the  highest 
5 


66  PASCAL 

eminence  in  literature.  Tillemont  was  a  pupil  at  the 
school  of  Chenet,  and  is  said  to  have  outlined  his  great 
histories  there  when  only  nineteen  years  of  age.  So 
Racine  meditated  some  of  his  tragedies  as  a  boy  in  the 
woods  of  Port  Royal.  Pascal,  Arnauld,  Nicole,  de  Saci 
are  names  that  would  shed  lustre  upon  any  society, 
and  much  of  their  work  was  conceived  or  composed  at 
Port  Royal. 

One  great  difference  between  the  schools  of  Port 
Royal  and  those  of  their  rivals,  the  Jesuits,  was  found 
in  the  greater  simplicity  and  reasonableness  of  their 
methods.  Everything  like  ostentation  or  artifice  was 
discouraged.  Routine  and  habit  were  supplanted  by 
principles  which  contained  within  them  reasons  for 
judgment  and  for  conduct,  so  that  the  scholars  were 
encouraged  to  think  and  to  judge  for  themselves. 

We  can  now  understand  the  nature  of  the  community 
into  which  Pascal  found  admission  in  January  1655. 
It  was  a  lay  fraternity  alongside  of  a  monastery,  a 
place  of  retreat  where  men  might  occupy  their  time  in 
prayer,  in  meditation,  in  the  cultivation  of  the  fields, 
in  the  instruction  of  the  young,  and  in  the  healing  of 
the  sick.  By  this  time,  however,  they  had  left  the 
buildings  which  they  had  occupied  in  the  absence  of 
the  nuns.  When  these  returned  to  Port  Royal  des 
Champs  in  1648,  the  Solitaries  gave  up  the  renovated 
buildings  to  their  original  owners,  and  retired  to  a 
farm  on  a  neighbouring  hill,  known  as  Les  Granges, 
where  they  were  almost  as  completely  separated  from 
the  nuns  as  when  they  had  been  in  Paris. 

It  was  in  Les  Granges  that  Pascal  took  up  his  abode 
with  the  Solitaries,  having  resolved  to  cut  himself  off 
from  all  the  attractions  and  indulgences  of  the  world. 


PORT  ROYAL  67 

He  followed  all  the  customs  of  the  society,  however 
rigorous.  He  rose  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  take 
part  in  the  services,  and,  in  disregard  of  all  the  cautions 
of  his  physicians,  practised  fasts  and  vigils  like  the 
most  healthy  of  the  brethren.  To  his  great  delight  he 
suffered  in  no  wise  from  these  exercises;  and  he  had 
the  greatest  satisfaction  in  the  hardness  of  his  fare 
and  the  simplicity  of  his  surroundings.  The  wooden 
spoon,  the  earthen  vessel,  were  to  him  as  gold  and 
precious  stones.  In  self-renunciation  he  found  the 
secret  of  happiness. 

No  less  great  was  the  satisfaction  of  the  Solitaries 
at  such  an  accession  to  their  ranks.  It  was  of  the 
goodness  of  God  that  one  was  added  to  them  so 
famous  and  s'o  profound.  At  the  same  time,  Pascal 
regarded  himself  as  not  completely  belonging  to  the 
community,  and  as  having  a  right  to  absent  himself 
when  he  thought  it  necessary.  So  he  often  withdrew 
for  a  time  and  lived  in  Paris,  at  his  own  house  or 
elsewhere,  under  the  name  of  M.  de  Mons.  But 
although  he  judged  it  best  to  preserve  his  independ- 
ence in  this  manner,  he  took  the  greatest  interest  in 
all  their  work — in  their  studies  and  in  their  schools, 
and  he  took  a  special  interest  in  the  conferences 
held  with  reference  to  the  translation  of  the  New 
Testament. 

It  was  here  that  he  wrote  two  of  his  short  treatises, 
which  are  still  preserved.  The  first  of  these  is  a 
fragment  On  the  Conversion  of  the  Sinner,  published 
for  the  first  time  by  Bossut.  It  is,  however,  assigned 
by  him  to  a  different  time.  Havet  has  no  doubt  that 
it  followed  upon  his  "  second  conversion."  In  this  brief 
tract  he  traces  the  return  of  a  soul  absorbed  in  the 


68  PASCAL 

world  to  God.  He  begins :  "  The  first  thing  that  God 
inspires  to  the  soul  which  He  deigns  truly  to  touch, 
is  an  extraordinary  knowledge  and  insight  by  which 
the  soul  considers  things  and  itself  in  a  fashion  quite 
new."  And  then  he  goes  on  to  show  how  a  man  who 
has  once  clearly  conceived  that  God  is  his  end,  comes 
from  this  to  will  that  God  shall  be  also  his  way  and 
the  principle  of  all  his  actions. 

The  other  document  is  entitled  Conference  of 
Pascal  with  M.  de  Sad  on  Epictetus  and  Montaigne. 
It  is  said  that  the  brethren  of  Port  Royal  were  desirous 
of  knowing  the  thoughts  of  Pascal  on  some  points  of 
philosophy,  and  M.  de  Saci  one  day  questioned  him 
on  the  subject.  The  report  of  the  conference  was 
made  by  M.  Fontaine,  but  it  is  believed  that  Pascal 
had  prepared  for  the  conference,  perhaps  by  making 
notes  of  what  he  intended  to  say.  It  would  appear, 
then,  that  while  the  substance  of  the  report  represents 
the  statements  of  Pascal,  we  cannot  regard  it  as  an  exact 
report  of  what  he  said ;  although  we  may  consider  it 
as  a  reproduction  of  Pascal's  thought,  and  largely  of 
his  words.  This  conference  is  so  important  not  only 
in  itself,  but  in  reference  to  Pascal's  subsequent  contro- 
versial work,  that  it  demands  some  attention  from  us 
here. 

M.  Fontaine  begins  with  some  preliminary  remarks 
which  fix  the  period  of  the  conference.  He  says :  "  M. 
Pascal  came  at  this  time  to  stay  at  Port  Royal  des 
Champs.  I  need  not  stop  to  tell  who  this  man  was 
whom  not  only  all  France  but  all  Europe  has  admired. 
His  mind  always  lively,  always  active,  was  of  an 
extent,  of  an  elevation,  of  a  certainty,  and  of  a  pre- 
cision beyond  what  one  could  believe."  M.  de  Saci, 


PORT  ROYAL  69 

he  says,  was  accustomed  to  speak  to  people  on  subjects 
in  which  they  were  interested,  and  therefore  he  spoke 
to  Pascal  on  the  subject  of  philosophy.  "M.  Pascal 
said  that  the  two  books  which  he  had  most  frequently 
read  were  Epictetus  and  Montaigne,  and  he  pronounced 
a  great  eulogium  on  these  two  minds.  M.  de  Saci,  who 
had  always  thought  he  ought  to  pay  little  regard  to 
these  authors,  besought  M.  Pascal  to  give  a  thorough 
explanation  of  his  views  on  the  subject." 

Pascal  declares  that  he  sees  in  these  two  writers 
the  chief  representatives  of  the  two  essential  forms  of 
philosophy.  Epictetus  and  Montaigne,  he  says,  are 
each  good  on  one  side  and  bad  on  the  other.  Epictetus 
has  seen  clearly  the  duty  of  man;  he  has  seen  that 
man  ought  to  regard  God  as  his  principal  object,  and 
ought  in  all  things  freely  to  submit  himself  to  Him. 
But  he  has  wrongly  believed  that  man  is  able  of 
himself  to  fulfil  this  duty.  As  for  Montaigne,  having 
endeavoured  to  find  out  what  moral  conduct  reason 
would  dictate  without  the  light  of  faith,  he  has  seen 
clearly  that  reason  thus  left  to  itself  could  end 
only  in  scepticism.  But  he  is  wrong  in  holding  that 
man  may  rely  upon  what  he  can  do,  neglecting  what 
he  ought  to  do.  He  is  wrong  in  approving  a  man's 
taking  for  his  sole  rule  the  guidance  of  custom  and 
convenience,  and  holding  that  a  man  might  go  to  sleep 
on  the  pillow  of  sloth.  Thus  the  one  understands 
duty,  but  concludes  falsely  from  duty  to  power ;  the 
other  knows  man's  impotence,  but  falsely  makes  of  it 
the  measure  of  duty. 

How  shall  we  disengage  the  truth  from  these  doc- 
trines ?  Will  it  suffice  to  bring  Epictetus  and  Montaigne 
together,  so  far  as  each  is  right,  and  thus  to  complete 


70  PASCAL 

them  by  each  other  ?  That  cannot  be.  Each  of  the 
two  philosophies  is,  from  the  natural  point  of  view, 
an  indissoluble  whole.  Man  is  one.  This  unity  would 
be  broken,  if  one  made  to  coexist  in  it  the  duty  of 
the  Stoic  and  the  impotence  of  the  Sceptic.  Neither 
Epictetus  nor  Montaigne  could  conclude  otherwise  than 
they  have  done.  And  thus  the  two  doctrines  produce 
a  contradiction  which  is  inevitable,  since  each  of  them 
is  necessary  and  insoluble,  since  we  are  dealing  with 
a  subject  which  is  indecomposable.  It  is  reason  itself 
engaging  in  a  conflict  from  which  it  cannot  come  out. 
Neither  affirmation  nor  negation  is  allowed  here. 
Scepticism  is  no  less  excluded  than  dogmatism. 

The  solution  which  reason  could  not  find  is  furnished 
to  us  by  faith.  Both  parties  have  failed  to  discover 
that  the  present  condition  of  man  differs  from  the 
state  in  which  God  created  him.  The  Stoic,  remarking 
some  trace  of  his  primitive  greatness,  pretends  that  his 
nature  is  sound  and  capable,  by  itself,  of  drawing  near 
to  God.  The  Sceptic,  seeing  only  our  present  corrup- 
tion, treats  nature  as  necessarily  frail.  Now  the  misery 
is  in  nature  and  the  greatness  is  in  grace,  to  which  it 
appertains  to  repair  nature ;  and  the  coexistence  of 
misery  and  greatness  ceases  to  be  contradictory  from 
the  moment  that  these  two  qualities  are  regarded  as 
residing  in  two  different  subjects.  How  is  this  co- 
existence possible?  It  has  its  explanation  in  the 
ineffable  union  of  weakness  and  power  in  the  unique 
personality  of  the  God-man.  It  is  an  image  and  effect 
of  the  duality  and  unity  of  Jesus  Christ. 

M.  de  Saci  testified  his  admiration  at  the  manner 
in  which  Pascal  brought  round  his  argument  in  defence 
of  his  readings,  but  expressed  his  fear  that  people  in 


PORT  ROYAL  71 

general  could  not  make  so  good  a  use  of  them,  could 
not,  like  Pascal,  get  medicine  out  of  poison,  pearls  from 
rubbish,  and  therefore  it  would  be  better  for  them  to 
abstain  from  them. 

Pascal  replies  that  he  finds  in  Epictetus  an  invaluable 
means  of  disturbing  the  repose  of  those  who  seek  rest 
in  external  things,  and  forcing  them  to  know  that  they 
are  veritable  slaves  and  miserably  blind ;  that  it  is 
impossible  for  them  to  find  anything  else  than  error 
and  the  grief  that  they  flee  from  unless  they  give 
themselves  without  reserve  to  God  alone.  Montaigne, 
on  the  other  hand,  is  incomparable  as  a  means  of  con- 
founding the  pride  of  those  who,  without  faith,  pique 
themselves  on  the  possession  of  true  righteousness; 
and  of  disabusing  those  who  are  attached  to  their  own 
opinions,  and  who  imagine  that  they  find  in  the  sciences 
immovable  truths ;  and  of  convincing  the  reason  of  the 
smallness  of  its  light  and  of  its  errors,  to  such  an 
extent  that  it  is  difficult,  when  one  makes  a  good  use 
of  those  principles,  to  be  tempted  to  find  stumbling- 
blocks  in  the  mysteries;  for  the  mind  is  thus  so 
humbled  that  it  is  far  from  wishing  to  question  if  the 
Incarnation  or  the  mystery  of  the  Eucharist  is  possible, 
— a  matter  too  frequently  agitated  by  men  in  general. 

But  if  Epictetus  combats  sloth,  he  leads  to  pride, 
so  that  he  might  be  hurtful  to  those  who  are  not 
persuaded  of  the  corruption  of  even  the  most  perfect 
righteousness  which  is  not  of  faith.  And  Montaigne  is 
absolutely  pernicious  to  those  who  have  an  inclination 
to  impiety  and  vice.  Therefore  they  ought  to  be  pro- 
portioned with  much  care,  discretion,  and  regard  to  the 
condition  and  morals  of  those  who  are  advised  to  read 
them.  It  seems,  however,  to  me  that  in  joining  them 


72  PASCAL 

together,  they  would  not  succeed  badly,  since  the  one 
opposes  the  evil  of  the  other ;  not  that  they  are  capable 
of  producing  virtue,  but  only  of  disturbing  vice ;  the 
soul  finding  itself  combated  by  these  contrary  tendencies, 
the  one  driving  out  pride  and  the  other  sloth ;  not  being 
able  to  rest  in  either  of  these  vices  by  its  arguments, 
nor  yet  to  avoid  them  both. 

In  short,  these  two  writers,  if  they  cannot  produce 
virtue,  can  at  least  disturb  vice;  and,  in  particular, 
they  each  of  them  assail  one  of  the  two  great  forms  of 
evil,  sloth  and  pride,  which  are  the  obstacles  to  all 
good  in  human  life.  Pascal  could  not  be  satisfied  with 
gaining  a  knowledge  of  truth  for  himself.  He  had 
been  the  means  of  his  sister's  conversion ;  and  she,  in 
her  turn,  had  aided  him  in  his  final  decision.  So  now 
he  influenced  the  Due  de  Roannez  to  abandon  the 
worldly  life,  and  began  to  meditate  the  great  apologetic 
work  which  he  never  completed,  but  of  which  he  has 
left  us  fragments  so  precious  in  the  Thoughts. 

We  are  now  approaching  the  period  of  Pascal's  great 
controversy  with  the  Jesuits.  He  was  an  inmate  of 
Les  Granges,  although  not  strictly  a  member  of  the 
Society  of  the  Solitaries.  He  passed  his  time  among 
them  or  in  Paris,  as  it  proved  most  convenient  for  him ; 
probably  at  first  the  greater  part  at  Port  Royal  under 
the  direction  of  M.  de  Saci,  and  for  a  time,  at  least,  in 
the  enjoyment  of  tolerable  health.  During  the  later 
period  of  his  controversy,  which  came  to  an  end  in 
1657,  he  seems  to  have  spent  most  of  his  time  in 
Paris. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS 

WE  are  now  approaching  the  time  of  the  great  conflict 
in  which  Pascal  stood  forth  as  the  champion  of  Port 
Royal  and  gained  the  undying  enmity  of  the  Jesuit 
Order.  Before  coming  to  the  history  of  the  contro- 
versy, a  few  words  should  be  said  on  the  nature  of 
the  dispute.  That  dispute  is  at  least  as  old  as  the  days 
of  Augustine  and  the  Pelagians,  although  the  opponents 
of  Pascal  would  deny  that  the  Jansenists  were  true 
Augustinians,  or  that  they  were  themselves  Pelagians. 

It  is  agreed  on  all  hands  that  man  has  need  of  divine 
grace  before  he  can  turn  to  God  or  acquire  holiness  of 
character.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  undeniable  that 
man  must  have  a  certain  endowment  of  freedom  before 
he  can  be  regarded  as  responsible.  The  dispute  between 
the  two  opposing  schools  has  reference  to  the  relations 
between  divine  grace  and  human  liberty. 

Pelagius  taught  roundly  that  man  had  himself  the 
power  of  repenting  and  believing,  and  made  grace  play 
a  very  subordinate  part.  This  system  was  a  practical 
denial  of  original  sin  and  the  need  of  redemption. 
St.  Augustine  was  raised  up  to  defend  the  doctrine  of 
divine  grace  against  the  Pelagians,  as  he  had  main- 
tained the  doctrine  of  human  liberty  against  the 
Manichaeans. 

73 


74  PASCAL 

The  Schoolmen  generally,  especially  St.  Thomas 
Aquinas,  were  followers  of  Augustine;  and  the  Re- 
formers were  mostly  on  the  same  side,  with  Luther  and 
Calvin  at  their  head.  The  latter  went  beyond  Augustine 
in  extending  the  operation  of  the  divine  decrees. 
These  principles  became  dominant  in  the  University  of 
Louvain,  and  Baiiis,  one  of  the  professors,  teaching  a 
doctrine  which  was  regarded  as  akin  to  that  of  Luther, 
was  condemned  by  the  Constitution  of  Urban  VIII.  in 
1641.  The  particular  nature  of  these  doctrines  in 
detail  will  come  out  in  the  sequel.  The  Dominicans, 
following  their  great  St.  Thomas,  made  themselves  the 
defenders  of  the  doctrines  of  grace,  and  accused  the 
Jesuits  of  Pelagianism  or  Semi-Pelagianism,  whilst  the 
Jesuits  accused  the  Dominicans  of  Calvinism.  The 
Universities  of  Louvain  and  Douai  condemned  several 
propositions  put  forth  by  Lessius,  an  eminent  Jesuit 
theologian.  Sixtus  v.  censured  the  universities,  and 
imposed  silence  on  both  parties. 

The  controversy  was  revived  by  several  Spanish 
theologians ;  and  Molina,  a  Spanish  divine,  professor  of 
theology  in  the  Portuguese  University  of  Evora,  put 
forth  a  work  on  the  Concord  of  Liberty  and  Grace, 
which  was  immediately  assailed  and  condemned  by  the 
Dominicans ;  and  again  the  papal  veto  was  put  upon 
the  controversy  by  Clement  VIIL,  who  declared  that 
each  side  might  hold  its  own  opinions,  and  that  they 
should  not  treat  each  other  as  heretics.  The  controversy 
was  continued,  but  it  did  not  assume  considerable 
proportions  until  the  publication  of  the  great  work  of 
Jansenius,  the  Augustinus,  which  was  not  put  forth 
until  1640,  after  the  death  of  the  author.  This  book 
consisted  of  three  folio  volumes — the  first  devoted  to 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS  75 

an  historical  exposition  of  the  Pelagian  and  Semi- 
Pelagian  heresies,  the  second  to  the  exposition  of  the 
Augustinian  doctrine  respecting  the  State  of  Innocence 
and  the  Fallen  State,  whilst  the  third  treats  of  the 
grace  of  Christ  the  Saviour,  and  of  the  predestination 
of  men  and  angels. 

Jansenius  in  his  will  declared  his  submission  to  the 
judgment  of  Rome,  as  he  had  also  done  in  the  preface 
to  his  book.  But  his  opponents  declared  that  his 
communications  with  St.  Cyran  were  inconsistent  with 
this  submission.  Jansenius  had  laboured  for  twenty 
years  on  this  book.  He  had  read  the  whole  works  of 
the  great  Latin  Father  ten  times,  and  the  Anti-Pelagian 
treatises  thirty  times,  and  he  had  no  doubt  of  the 
fidelity  of  his  interpretation.  The  appearance  of  the 
book  was  the  signal  for  hostilities,  one  party  declaring 
that  here  they  had  the  true  doctrines  of  St.  Augustine 
and  St.  Paul,  the  other  that  they  found  those  of 
Luther  and  Calvin.1  Pope  Urban  vin.  in  1642  pro- 
scribed the  Augustinus  as  being  published  without  the 
papal  sanction,  and  as  containing  propositions  which 
had  already  been  condemned.  Arnauld  undertook  the 
defence  of  Jansenius. 

A  further  step  was  taken  by  a  member  of  the 
theological  faculty  of  Paris,  Nicolas  Cornet,  putting 
forth  a  summary  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Augustinus  in 
five  propositions  which  he  had  submitted  to  the  cen- 
sure of  the  Sorbonne.  The  Sorbonne,  however,  referred 

1  St.  Cyran  was  in  his  prison  at  Vincennes  when  it  appeared.  But 
he  at  once  recognised  the  doctrines  which  he  and  Jansenius  had  worked 
out  together.  The  Augustinus,  he  said,  would  last  as  long  as  the 
Church.  After  St.  Paul  and  St.  Augustine,  no  one  had  written  of  grace 
like  Jansenius. 


76  PASCAL 

the  question  to  the  judgment  of  the  bishops  of  France 
who  were  then  assembled  at  Paris;  and  the  bishops 
handed  it  on  to  Pope  Innocent  x.,  who  submitted  it  to 
a  congregation  of  cardinals  and  theologians ;  and  after 
an  examination  which  lasted  over  two  years,  the  pro- 
positions were  condemned  as  heretical,  31st  March  1653. 
In  the  same  year  the  condemnation  pronounced  by 
Innocent  x.  was  adopted  by  the  French  bishops  under 
the  presidency  of  Cardinal  Mazarin. 

It  may  be  convenient  in  this  place  to  give  a  copy  of 
these  famous  five  propositions.  They  are  as  follows : 
— 1.  There  are  some  divine  precepts  which  are  im- 
possible to  just  men,  with  the  strength  which  they 
have,  notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  their  will ;  nor  have 
they  the  grace  which  would  render  them  possible  to 
them.  2.  In  the  state  of  fallen  nature  interior  grace  is 
never  resisted.  3.  In  order  to  acquire  merit  or  demerit 
in  the  state  of  fallen  nature,  liberty  of  necessity  is  not 
indispensable ;  liberty  of  coaction  suffices  [i.e.  not  a 
liberty  which  excludes  necessity,  but  a  liberty  which 
excludes  constraint].  4.  The  Semi-Pelagians  admitted 
the  necessity  of  an  interior  prevenient  grace  for  the 
performance  of  all  actions,  and  even  for  the  beginning 
of  faith ;  they  were  heretical  in  that  they  believed  that 
the  will  could  resist  or  obey.  5.  It  is  Semi-Pelagian  to 
say  that  Christ  died  and  shed  His  blood  for  all  men. 

The  Jansenists  evaded  this  condemnation  by  ad- 
mitting the  heretical  character  of  the  five  propositions, 
while  denying  that  they  were  contained  in  the  work 
of  Jansenius.  Their  adversaries,  however,  were  deter- 
mined to  cut  off  this  way  of  retreat,  and  in  1654  the 
French  bishops  declared  that  the  five  propositions 
were  contained  in  the  book  of  Jansenius,  and  that 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS  77 

they  had  been  condemned  in  the  sense  of  his  writing. 
Their  judgment  was  confirmed  by  the  pope  who  suc- 
ceeded Alexander  vn.,  and  he  declared,  2nd  September, 
1656,  that  the  condemnation  of  Innocent  x.  extended  to 
the  teaching  of  Jansenius  and  the  meaning  of  his  book. 
In  the  meantime,  however,  something  had  happened 
which  gave  a  new  direction  to  the  controversy.  On 
31st  January  1655  the  parish  priest  of  St.  Sulpice 
deferred  the  granting  of  absolution  to  M.  de  Liancourt 
for  receiving  into  his  house  a  heretic,  who  was  a  friend 
of  Port  Royal,  and  for  having  his  grandchild  educated 
in  the  schools  of  the  abbey.  On  this  occasion  Antoine 
Arnauld  published  a  tract  entitled  Letter  to  a  Person 
of  Condition,  which  was  violently  attacked  by  the 
Jesuits,  particularly  by  Father  Annat.1  Arnauld 
replied  to  the  Jesuits,  10th  July  1655,  in  a  Second 
Letter  to  a  Duke  and  Peer  of  France,  the  Due  de 
Luynes.  Arnauld  fell  back  upon  the  distinction 
between  the  question  of  right  and  the  question  of 
fact,  accepting  the  papal  decision  on  the  former  point 
but  not  on  the  latter.  He  declared  his  readiness  to 
subscribe  the  papal  bull  of  31st  May  1653,  which  con- 
demned the  five  propositions  attributed  to  Jansenius. 
But  this  did  not  satisfy  his  opponents.  Two  points 
were  taken.  In  the  first  place,  they  retorted  that  he 
had  justified  the  Augustinus  of  Jansenius,  and  called  in 
question  the  statement  that  the  inculpated  propositions 

1  Concerning  Antoine  Arnauld  a  few  words  should  here  be  said.  He 
was  the  youngest  of  the  twenty  children  of  the  great  orator  of  whom  we 
have  already  spoken,  and  therefore  the  uncle  of  Le  Maitre  and  de  Saci. 
He  fell  early  under  the  influence  of  the  Jansenists,  and  subsequently 
received  priest's  orders.  But  he  would  receive  no  emolument  from  the 
Church,  and  gave  most  of  his  property  to  the  Church.  He  became  a 
doctor  in  1641,  and,  as  already  noted,  was  known  as  the  great  Arnauld. 


78  PASCAL 

were  contained  in  the  book.  In  the  second  place,  they 
charged  him  with  the  first  proposition,  according  to 
which  the  grace  necessary  is  not  always  accorded  to 
the  righteous,  saying  that  the  Gospel  and  the  Fathers 
showed  us,  in  the  person  of  St.  Peter  denying  Christ, 
a  righteous  man  to  whom  grace  had  failed.  This 
second  letter  was  submitted  to  the  Sorbonne,  the 
Faculty  of  Theology. 

The  adversaries  of  Arnauld,  who  were  backed  up  by 
the  Government  of  the  day,  determined  to  silence 
Arnauld,  and,  in  order  to  do  so,  they  added  to  the 
Faculty  a  number  of  Mendicant  friars,  all  of  them 
Molinists,  in  opposition  to  the  rules  of  the  Faculty. 
By  this  means  Molinist  commissaries  were  appointed 
to  examine  the  case.  On  1st  December  1655  they 
presented  their  report  condemning  Arnauld  on  both 
points,  the  question  of  fact  and  the  question  of  right. 
It  was  in  vain  that  Arnauld  protested  his  adhesion  to 
the  doctrine  of  St.  Thomas  with  respect  to  sufficient 
grace  as  distinct  from  efficacious  grace,  condemning 
the  five  propositions  in  whatever  book  they  might  be 
found,  and  asking  forgiveness  of  the  pope  and  of  the 
bishops  for  having  written  his  letter.  He  was  not 
even  permitted  to  state  his  case  in  person ;  and  on  the 
14th  January  1656  he  was  condemned  on  the  ques- 
tion of  fact  by  a  hundred  and  twenty-four  voices 
against  seventy-one,  fifteen  remaining  neutral.  The 
condemnation  was  simply  a  foregone  conclusion. 

There  remained  the  question  of  right.  The  Thomists 
were  disposed  to  hold  Arnauld  absolved,  if  he  should 
acknowledge  in  the  soul  of  the  just  the  presence  of  a 
sufficient  as  distinct  from  an  efficient  grace.  But  the 
Molinists  endeavoured  to  stop  the  discussion.  The 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS  79 

Jansenists  and  the  friends  of  Port  Royal  had  little 
expectation  of  securing  the  acquittal  of  Arnauld  by 
the  Sorbonne;  and  they  began  to  think  of  carrying 
the  matter  before  another  tribunal,  that  of  the  public. 
Arnauld  was  told  that  he  must  not  suffer  himself  to  be 
condemned  like  a  child,  without  making  the  public 
acquainted  with  the  merits  of  the  case.  He  had  done 
something  in  this  way,  but  without  attracting  much 
attention  to  his  defence,  or,  indeed,  satisfying  his 
friends  that  he  could  do  so. 

In  this  emergency  the  help  of  Pascal,  was  invoked ; 
and  he,  although  by  no  means  confident  of  the  result, 
set  himself  to  the  task;  and  the  first  Provincial  was 
the  result.  His  friends  were  astonished  and  delighted, 
and  herein  only  anticipated  the  judgment  of  the  great 
public  to  whom  the  appeal  was  made.  On  the  23rd 
January  1656  this  first  letter  was  given  to  the  world ; 
the  eighteenth  and  last,  it  may  here  be  mentioned, 
appeared  on  24th  March  1657. 

The  question  which  naturally  presents  itself  to  us 
who  read  these  letters  nearly  two  centuries  and  a  half 
after  the  date  of  their  publication,  has  chiefly  reference 
to  their  permanent  interest  and  importance.  And  this 
question  will  be  answered  differently  according  to  the 
point  of  view  from  which  we  survey  the  controversy, 
and  perhaps  also  according  to  the  subjects  and  aspects 
of  the  conflict  to  which  we  may  direct  our  attention. 
According  to  some,  the  controversy  in  which  Pascal 
was  engaged  was  a  mere  dispute  among  theologians, 
which  no  longer  interests  the  world,  or  even  students 
of  theology  themselves.  But  even  if  men  no  longer 
controvert  each  other's  views  on  predestination  with 
the  ardour  of  earlier  times,  it  would  be  a  rash  assertion 


8o  PASCAL 

to  say  that  the  doctrines  of  divine  grace  can  ever  cease 
to  be  a  matter  of  deepest  interest  to  Christian  thinkers ; 
and  there  are  other  questions  of  eternal  import  handled 
in  these  letters ;  and  there  are  principles  involved  which 
can  never  be  ignored  or  put  out  of  sight  so  long  as  men 
speak  and  think  in  a  rational  manner. 

"  People,"  says  Alexander  Vinet,1  "  speak  of  the  ques- 
tions agitated  in  the  Provincials  as  of  questions  which 
are  extinct ;  but  they  are  not  so,  and  nothing  can 
extinguish  them.  We  may  even  say,  there  is,  in  the 
debate  into  which  Pascal  cast  the  weight  of  his  genius 
and  of  his  conviction,  nothing  which  is  not  of  interest 
for  all  ages.  The  conflict  of  Doctor  Arnauld  with  the 
Sorbonne,  the  play  of  passions  and  of  intrigue  in  the 
bosom  of  this  corporation  of  theologians,  the  popular 
passion  which  we  hear  breaking  forth  in  hollow  reson- 
ance around  the  sacred  enclosure,  this  minority  con- 
demned before  being  heard,  which  appeals  earnestly 
and  suddenly  from  the  Areopagus  of  the  doctors  to  the 
public  erected  into  a  court  of  appeal  for  the  second 
time  since  its  convocation  by  the  Reformers  of  the 
sixteenth  century;  all  this  can  appear  a  matter  of 
indifference  only  to  those  for  whom  the  Fronde,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  a  serious  event  worthy  of  the  most  care- 
ful study.  Let  us  venture  to  say  it :  Nothing  greater 
than  this  has  occurred  in  the  course  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  The  preoccupations  of  the  public  during  this 
period  were,  at  least,  as  important  as  ours.  And  if  we 
possessed  only  the  three  first  Provincials,  I  should  not 
speak  otherwise.  But  how  much  the  field  of  the  debate 
was  enlarged  by  the  illustrious  pamphleteer !  .  .  . 

"  M.  Villemain  has  not  said  everything,  but  he  has 
1  fitudcs  sur  Blaise,  Pascal,  3me  ed.  p.  267. 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS  81 

said  the  truth  when  he  has  affirmed  that  *  the  Solitaries 
of  Port  Royal,  in  seeming  to  discuss  only  scholastic 
subtleties,  represented  liberty  of  conscience,  the  spirit 
of  inquiry,  the  love  of  justice  and  of  truth.'  From  the 
point  of  view  of  our  age,  too  exclusively  preoccupied 
with  civil  liberty,  the  struggle  of  Port  Royal  and  of  its 
immortal  secretary  against  an  Order  and  against  a 
party  which  aspired  to  govern  the  State,  and  which 
knew  how  to  succeed  in  the  attempt,  is  even  to-day 
worthy  of  a  lively  interest.  The  tradition  of  liberty, 
let  us  be  well  assured,  is  perpetual  as  that  of  truth. 
There  is  no  age  in  which  liberty,  which  is  one  of  the 
truths  of  the  social  order,  has  not  had  its  representa- 
tives and  its  witnesses.  What  matters  the  form  and 
the  applications.  The  serious  thinkers  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  did  not  pursue  the  same  liberty  as  we 
do,  or,  rather,  they  did  not,  like  us,  seek  the  guarantees 
of  liberty ;  but,  like  us,  they  sought  for  liberty.  .  .  . 

"  The  seventeenth  century  at  least  trained  itself  and 
prepared  itself  for  liberty  by  religion  and  literature, 
which  are  already  two  liberties,  and  the  pledge  of  all 
the  rest.  These  religious  discussions  which  we  find 
excessive  in  the  seventeenth  century,  this  literary 
development  which  to  us  seems  only  to  have  subserved 
the  glory  of  the  nation,  have  not  failed  to  lead  France 
on  towards  liberty.  Port  Royal  has  advanced  the 
country  more  in  this  path  than  the  Fronde;  and 
Louis  xiv.,  in  pensioning  Racine  and  Despreaux,  was 
pensioning  liberty,  of  which  the  germ  lies  hidden,  and 
develops  itself  in  silence  in  all  the  exalted  applications 
of  the  human  mind.  All  these  discussions,  all  these 
labours  in  forming  a  public,  were  preparing  a  people ; 
for  the  public  is  the  precursor  of  the  people." 
6 


82  PASCAL 

The  interest  of  the  Provincial  Letters  is  manifold. 
Even  if  the  number  of  those  who  regard  the  contro- 
versy concerning  Divine  Grace  as  pre-eminent  has 
greatly  decreased;  even  if  the  questions  of  morality 
and  casuistry  excite  less  concern  than  in  former  days, 
at  least  these  letters  must  always  make  a  powerful 
appeal  to  those  who  can  appreciate  the  most  exquisite 
products  of  human  literature. 

With  regard  to  the  contents  of  the  earlier  letters  in 
general,  we  may  here  notice  that  there  are  three  prin- 
cipal points  on  the  subject  of  Divine  Grace  which  are 
examined.  The  first  was  that  which  was  called  Proxi- 
mate Power  (pouvoir  prochain),  and  is  dealt  with  in 
the  first  letter.  The  second,  on  Sufficient  Grace,  is 
examined  in  the  second.  The  third,  on  Actual  Grace,  is 
explained  in  the  fourth  letter.  The  fourth  letter,  which 
appeared  immediately  after  the  Censure,  shows  the 
entire  conformity  of  the  Proposition  of  Arnauld  with 
the  teaching  of  the  Fathers,  so  complete,  indeed,  that 
the  doctors  who  censured  him  could  point  out  no 
difference.  These  four  letters  complete  the  considera- 
tion of  the  case  of  Arnauld.  Pascal  then  proceeds 
with  his  attack  on  the  Jesuits,  returning  subsequently 
to  the  Augustinian  doctrines. 

The  first  letter  was  published,  in  its  original  form, 
under  the  title,  "  Letter  written  to  a  Provincial  by  one 
of  his  friends";  and  it  does  not  seem  quite  clear 
whether  this  heading  was  Pascal's  or  the  work  of  his 
printer.  The  description,  however,  was  accurate,  al- 
though it  is  not  certain  whether  the  "  friend "  was  a 
particular  person,  and,  if  he  was,  whether  he  was  his 
brother-in-law  Perier  or  another  What  is  of  more 
importance  to  us  is  to  appreciate  the  contents,  in  sub- 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS  83 

stance  and  in  form,  of  these  wonderful  letters.     The 
writer  starts  in  medias  res. 

Sin,  he  begins,  we  were  quite  imposed  upon.  It  was 
only  yesterday  that  I  was  undeceived.  Until  then  I 
had  thought  that  the  subject  of  the  disputes  in  the 
Sorbonne  were  very  important  and  highly  momentous 
for  religion.  So  many  meetings  of  a  company  so 
celebrated  as  the  Faculty  of  Theology  of  Paris,  in 
which  so  many  things  have  occurred  so  extraordinary 
and  unprecedented,  make  us  conceive  so  high  an  idea 
of  the  proceedings  that  it  is  impossible  to  believe  that 
they  did  not  relate  to  something  quite  extraordinary. 

However,  you  will  be  much  surprised  when  you 
learn  from  the  account  I  give  you,  to  what  end  such  a 
commotion  has  come.  And  this  is  what  I  will  tell 
you  in  a  few  words,  after  having  made  myself  per- 
fectly acquainted  with  it. 

Two  questions  were  examined,  the  one  a  question  of 
fact  (fait),  the  other  of  right  (droit).  The  question  of 
fact  consists  of  knowing  if  M.  Arnauld  is  presumptuous 
for  having  said  in  his  second  letter  that  he  had  read 
carefully  the  work  of  Jansenius,  and  that  he  had  not 
found  there  the  propositions  condemned  by  the  late 
pope ;  but,  nevertheless,  as  he  condemns  these  proposi- 
tions wherever  they  are  found,  he  condemns  them  in 
Jansenius  if  they  are  there. 

The  question  is  to  know  if  he  could  without  temerity 
testify  in  that  manner  that  he  doubted  whether  these 
propositions  were  in  Jansenius,  after  the  bishops  had 
declared  that  they  were  there. 

The  matter  is  brought  before  the  Sorbonne.  Seventy- 
one  doctors  undertake  his  defence,  and  maintain  that, 


84  PASCAL 

when  he  read  so  many  writings,  and  was  asked  if  he 
held  that  these  propositions  were  in  this  book,  he  could 
give  no  other  answer  than  this,  that  he  had  not  seen 
them  there ;  and,  nevertheless,  that  he  condemned  them 
if  they  were  there. 

Some,  indeed,  went  further,  declaring  that  after  all 
the  examination  that  they  had  made,  they  had  never 
found  them  there,  and  that  they  had  even  found  pro- 
positions quite  opposed  to  them ;  and  urgently  re- 
questing that,  if  any  doctor  present  had  seen  them, 
he  should  show  them ;  that  this  was  a  matter  so  easy, 
that  it  could  not  be  refused,  especially  as  it  was  a  sure 
means  of  bringing  them  all  over,  and  even  M.  Arnauld. 
But  they  were  always  refused.  This  is  what  passed 
on  one  side. 

On  the  other  side  were  found  eighty  secular  doctors, 
and  some  forty  mendicant  religious,  who  condemned 
the  proposition  of  M.  Arnauld  without  caring  to 
examine  if  what  he  had  said  was  true  or  false,  and 
even  declared  that  there  was  no  question  of  the  truth, 
but  only  of  the  temerity  of  his  proposition.  Besides 
these  there  were  fifteen  who  were  not  for  the  censure, 
and  who  were  called  Indifferents.  In  this  manner 
terminated  the  question  of  fact,  with  regard  to  which 
I  need  not  give  myself  much  more  trouble ;  since, 
indeed,  the  question  of  M.  Arnauld's  temerity  does 
not  interest  my  conscience.  And,  if  I  should  be 
curious  to  know  if  these  propositions  are  in  Jansenius, 
his  book  is  not  so  rare  or  so  large  that  I  could  not  read 
it  from  beginning  to  end  so  as  to  enlighten  myself 
without  consulting  the  Sorbonne  about  it. 

But,  if  I  did  not  fear  also  to  be  presumptuous,  I 
should  follow,  as  I  think,  the  way  of  the  majority  of 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS  85 

the  people  whom  I  see,  who,  having  until  now  believed 
on  the  faith  of  the  public  that  these  propositions  are 
in  Jansenius,  begin  to  get  rid  of  the  contrary  opinion 
from  the  strange  refusal  of  people  to  point  them  out, 
and  this  to  such  an  extent  that  I  have  never  yet  seen 
a  person  who  could  tell  me  that  he  had  seen  them.  So 
that  I  fear  this  censure  does  more  harm  than  good,  and 
that  it  will  give  to  those  who  learn  its  history  an  idea 
quite  opposed  to  the  decision.  For,  in  truth,  the  world 
becomes  distrustful,  and  believes  things  only  when  it 
sees  them.  But,  as  I  have  already  said,  this  point  is 
of  small  importance,  since  there  is  here  no  question  of 
faith. 

As  to  the  question  of  right,  that  appears  much  more 
considerable,  since  it  touches  the  faith.  I  have,  besides, 
taken  particular  care  to  inform  myself  on  this  point. 
But  you  will  be  quite  relieved  to  see  that  it  is  a  thing 
of  as  little  importance  as  the  first. 

The  question  is  to  examine  what  M.  Arnauld  said 
in  the  same  letter :  "  That  the  grace  without  which  we 
can  do  nothing  was  wanting  to  St.  Peter  in  his  fall." 
In  regard  to  which  you  and  I  imagined  that  it  was  a 
question  of  examining  the  greatest  principles  of  grace, 
as  to  whether  it  was  given  to  all  men,  or  whether  it 
was  efficacious  by  itself.  But  we  were  mistaken.  I 
have  become  a  great  theologian  in  a  short  time,  and 
you  are  going  to  see  the  proofs  of  it. 

In  order  to  know  the  truth  of  the  matter,  I  saw  Mr. 
N.,  a  doctor  from  Navarre,  who  lives  near  my  house, 
and,  as  you  know,  is  one  of  the  most  zealous  opponents 
of  Jansenists ;  and,  as  my  curiosity  rendered  me  almost 
as  ardent  as  he,  I  asked  him  whether  they  would  not 
formally  decide  that  "  grace  is  given  to  all  men,"  in 


86  PASCAL 

order  that  there  should  be  no  further  question  on  this 
subject.  But  he  repulsed  me  roughly,  and  told  me 
that  this  was  not  the  point ;  that  there  were  some  on 
his  side  who  held  that  grace  is  not  given  to  all ;  that 
the  examiners  had  said  even  in  the  Sorbonne,  that  this 
opinion  is  problematical,  and  that  he  was  himself  of 
that  opinion;  and  he  confirmed  it  by  what  he  called 
a  celebrated  passage  in  St.  Augustine :  "  We  know 
that  grace  is  not  given  to  all  men." 

I  apologised  to  him  for  not  having  quite  caught  his 
meaning,  and  I  asked  him  if  they  would  not  at  least 
condemn  this  other  opinion  of  the  Jansenists  which 
makes  so  much  noise,  "  that  grace  is  efficacious,  and 
that  it  determines  our  will  to  be  good."  But  I  was  no 
more  fortunate  in  this  second  question.  "  You  under- 
stand nothing  of  the  matter,"  he  said  to  me ;  "  that  is 
not  a  heresy :  it  is  an  orthodox  opinion ;  all  the 
Thomists  hold  it ;  and  as  for  myself,  I  have  maintained 
it  in  my  thesis  for  the  Sorbonne." 

I  did  not  venture  to  lay  my  doubts  further  before 
him;  and,  besides,  I  did  not  see  further  where  the 
difficulty  was,  when,  in  order  to  get  enlightened  on  it, 
I  entreated  him  to  tell  me  wherein  consisted  the  heresy 
of  the  proposition  of  M.  Arnauld.  "  It  is,"  he  said,  "  in 
this,  that  he  does  not  recognise  that  the  just  have  the 
power  to  accomplish  the  commandments  of  God  in  the 
manner  in  which  we  understand  it." 

I  left  him  after  receiving  this  instruction ;  and,  quite 
delighted  at  having  got  at  the  heart  of  the  affair,  I 
found  Mr.  N.,  who  was  well  enough  to  take  me  to  his 
brother-in-law,  who  is  a  Jansenist,  if  ever  there  was  one, 
but  for  all  that  a  very  good  sort  of  man.  In  order  to 
obtain  a  better  reception  with  him,  I  pretended  to  be 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS  87 

strongly  on  his  side,  and  I  said  to  him,  was  it  possible 
that  the  Sorbonne  should  have  introduced  into  the 
Church  this  error,  "  that  all  the  just  have  always  the 
power  to  keep  the  commandments  "  ?  "  What  do  you 
say  ? "  replied  my  doctor ;  "  do  you  call  that  an  error 
which  is  an  opinion  so  Catholic,  and  which  is  opposed 
only  by  Lutherans  and  Cal vinists  ? "  "  Well  then,"  I  said, 
",is  it  not  your  opinion  ? "  "  No,"  he  said,  "  we  anathe- 
matise it  as  heretical  and  impious."  Surprised  at  this 
reply,  I  knew  well  that  I  had  gone  too  far  in  playing 
the  Jansenist,  as  before  I  had  been  too  much  Molinist. 
But  not  being  able  to  assure  myself  of  the  meaning 
of  his  reply,  I  entreated  him  to  tell  me  in  confidence 
if  he  held  "  that  the  just  had  always  a  real  power  to 
keep  the  commandments."  My  friend  warmed  up  at 
this,  but  with  a  devout  zeal,  and  he  told  me  that  he 
would  never  disguise  his  opinions  for  any  reason ;  that 
this  was  his  belief,  and  that  he  and  all  his  friends 
would  defend  it  to  the  death,  as  being  the  pure  doctrine 
of  St.  Thomas,  and  of  St.  Augustine,  their  master. 

He  spoke  so  seriously  to  me  on  the  subject  that  I 
could  not  doubt  of  his  meaning.  And  in  this  assur- 
ance I  returned  to  my  first  doctor,  and  told  him  with 
great  satisfaction  that  I  was  sure  that  there  would 
soon  be  peace  in  the  Sorbonne;  that  the  Jansenists 
were  in  agreement  as  to  the  power  which  the  just  have 
to  keep  the  commandments ;  that  I  was  guarantee  for 
it ;  that  I  would  make  them  sign  it  with  their  blood. 
"  All  very  well,"  he  said,  "  but  one  must  be  a  theologian 
to  see  to  the  end  of  the  matter.  The  difference  be- 
tween us  is  so  subtle  that  we  can  hardly  discern  it 
ourselves ;  it  would  be  too  difficult  for  you  to  under- 
stand. Be  satisfied,  then,  to  know  that  the  Jansenists 


88  PASCAL 

will  certainly  tell  you  '  that  all  the  just  have  always 
the  power  to  keep  the  commandments ' ;  that  is  not 
the  point  in  dispute.  But  they  will  not  tell  you  that 
this  power  is  proximate  (prochain).1  That  is  the  point." 

This  word  was  new  to  me  and  unfamiliar.  Up  to 
this  time  I  had  understood  the  controversy ;  but  this 
term  confused  me,  and  I  believe  it  has  been  invented 
simply  for  the  purpose  of  mystification.  I  asked  him 
therefore  an  explanation  of  it ;  but  he  made  a  mystery 
of  it,  and  sent  me  away,  without  further  satisfaction, 
to  ask  the  Jansenists  if  they  admitted  this  proxi- 
mate power.  I  charged  my  memory  with  this  term, 
for  my  intelligence  had  no  part  in  it.  And,  for  fear 
of  forgetting  it,  I  promptly  set  out  to  find  my  Jan- 
senist  again,  to  whom,  immediately  after  the  first 
civilities,  I  said :  "  Tell  me,  I  pray  you,  if  you  admit 
the  proximate  power"  He  began  to  laugh,  and  said 
coldly:  "Do  you  tell  me  first  in  what  sense  you  use 
the  term,  and  then  I  will  tell  you  what  I  believe  of  it." 
As  my  knowledge  did  not  go  so  far,  I  saw  that  I  was 
not  in  a  position  to  answer  him ;  and  yet,  to  prevent 
my  visit  being  useless,  I  said  at  random,  "  I  use  it  in 
the  sense  of  the  Molinists."  To  this  my  friend  coldly 
replied :  "  To  which  of  the  Molinists  do  you  refer  me  ?  " 
I  offered  him  the  whole  of  them  together,  as  making 
but  one  body  and  acting  only  by  one  spirit. 

But  he  said :  "  You  are  very  poorly  instructed.  They 
are  so  little  agreed  that  they  hold  opinions  which  are 
contradictory ;  but  being  all  united  in  the  design  to 
ruin  M.  Arnauld,  they  have  agreed  to  adopt  this  word 
proximate,  which  they  are  all  to  make  use  of,  although 

1  "That  is  to  say,  relative  and  real.     Yes,  that  is  the  point."    The 
Abbe  Maynard,  in  his  notes  on  the  "  Provincials,"  thus  comments. 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS  89 

they  understand  it  differently,  in  order  that  they  may 
all  speak  the  same  language,  and  that  by  this  apparent 
agreement  they  may  be  able  to  form  a  considerable 
body,  and  so  compose  a  majority  in  order  to  make  sure 
of  crushing  him." 

This  reply  surprised  me.  But  without  receiving 
these  impressions  of  the  evil  designs  of  the  Molinists, 
which  I  cannot  believe  on  his  word,  and  in  which  I 
have  no  personal  interest,  I  applied  myself  simply  to 
know  the  different  senses  which  they  gave  to  this 
mysterious  word  proximate.  He  answered :  "  I  would 
willingly  enlighten  you  on  the  subject;  but  you  would 
see  in  it  so  great  an  opposition  and  contradiction,  that 
you  would  have  difficulty  in  believing  me.  You  would 
suspect  me  of  misrepresentation.  You  will  be  more 
certain  of  the  truth  by  learning  of  themselves ;  and  I 
will  give  you  their  addresses.  You  have  only  to  see 
separately  M.  le  Moine  and  Father  Nicolai."1  "I  do 
not  know  either  of  them,"  said  I.  "Well,  then,"  he 
said,  "see  if  you  do  know  any  of  those  whom  I  am 
about  to  name  to  you,  for  they  adopt  the  opinions  of 
M.  le  Moine."  "I  know  some  of  them  quite  well." 
Then  he  said  to  me:  "See  if  you  know  some  of  the 
Dominicans  who  are  called  New  Thomists,  for  they 
are  all  of  one  mind  with  Father  Nicolai."  I  knew 
some  of  those  whom  he  named  to  me,  and  resolved 
to  profit  by  this  advice  and  so  finish  the  business. 

1  The  reference  is  to  Alphonse  le  Moine,  doctor  of  the  Sorbonne, 
professor  in  the  faculty  of  theology.  He  was  dismissed  from  his  chair 
in  1654  and  died  in  1659.  Father  Nicolai  was  a  Dominican  ;  but  it 
became  clear  after  his  death  that  he  was  nothing  less  than  a  Thomist, 
and  that  he  had  completely  abandoned  the  doctrine  of  his  Order.  Born 
in  1594,  Nicolai  died  in  1673.  He  edited  the  works  of  St.  Thomas 
Aquinas.  —  Faugere. 


90  PASCAL 

So  I  left  him,  and  met  first  one  of  the  disciples  of 
M.  le  Moine. 

I  entreated  him  to  tell  me  what  was  meant  by 
"  having  the  proximate  power  to  do  anything."  "  That 
is  easy,"  he  answered ;  "  it  is  to  have  all  that  is  necessary 
for  doing  it,  so  that  nothing  is  lacking  for  action." 
"  And  so,"  I  said  to  him,  "  to  have  proximate  power  to 
pass  a  river  is  to  have  a  boat,  boatmen,  oars,  and  the 
rest,  so  that  nothing  is  wanting."  "Very  well,"  he 
answered.  "  And  to  have  the  proximate  power  to  see," 
I  went  on,  "is  to  be  in  full  day  and  to  have  good 
sight."  "Learnedly  said,"  he  replied.  "And  by  con- 
sequence," I  continued,  "  when  you  say  '  that  all  the  just 
have  always  the  proximate  power  to  observe  the  com- 
mandments/ you  mean  that  they  have  always  all  the 
grace  necessary  to  keep  them,  so  that  there  is  nothing 
wanting  to  them  on  the  part  of  God."  "Stop,"  he 
said,  "  they  have  always  all  that  is  necessary  to  keep 
them,  or  at  least  to  ask  it  of  God."  "  I  quite  understand," 
I  replied,  "  they  have  all  that  is  necessary  in  order  to 
pray  to  God  to  assist  them,  without  its  being  necessary 
for  them  to  have  from  God  any  new  grace  to  pray." 
"  You  understand,"  he  said.  "  But  it  is  not  then  neces- 
sary that  they  should  have  efficacious  grace  in  order 
to  pray  to  God."  "  No,"  he  replied,  "  not  according  to 
M.  le  Moine."1 

In  order  not  to  lose  time,  I  went  to  the  Jacobins, 
and  asked  for  those  whom  I  knew  to  be  New  Thomists. 

1  Doctor  le  Moine,  not  to  be  confounded  with  Father  le  Moine,  the 
Jesuit,  was  the  author  of  a  work  of  a  novel  character  on  Grace.  He 
distinguished  the  grace  of  action  from  that  of  prayer,  maintaining  that 
the  latter  is  only  sufficient  and  that  the  grace  of  action  is  always 
efficient.  — Faugere. 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS  91 

I  entreated  them  to  tell  me  the  meaning  of  proximate 
power.  "  Is  it  not,"  I  asked,  "  that  to  which  there  is 
nothing  lacking  in  order  to  action?"  "No,"  they 
replied.  "But  what,  Father,  if  there  is  something 
lacking  to  this  power,  do  you  call  it  proximate,  and 
should  you  say,  for  example,  that  a  man  has  in  the 
night  and  without  any  light  the  proximate  power  to 
see  ? "  "  Yes,  certainly,"  he  said ;  "  according  to  us,  he 
would  have  it  if  he  were  not  blind."  "  I  quite  agree," 
said  I ;  "  but  M.  le  Moine  understands  it  in  a  different 
way."  "  That  is  true,"  they  said ;  "  but  we  understand 
it  in  this  way."  "  I  agree  with  you,"  said  I ;  "  for  I  do 
not  quarrel  about  a  word,  provided  I  am  told  before- 
hand of  the  meaning  attached  to  it.  But  I  see  by  this 
that  when  you  say,  the  just  have  always  the  proximate 
power  to  pray  to  God,  you  mean  that  they  have  need 
of  further  help,  without  which  they  will  never  pray." 
"  That  is  excellent,"  replied  the  Fathers,  embracing  me, 
"  that  is  excellent ;  for  they  have  need  besides  of 
efficacious  grace  which  is  not  given  to  all,  and  which 
determines  their  will  to  pray;  and  it  is  a  heresy  to 
deny  the  necessity  of  this  efficacious  grace  in  order  to 
prayer." 

"  That  is  excellent,"  said  I  in  my  turn ;  "  but  accord- 
ing to  you  the  Jansenists  are  Catholics,  and  M.  le 
Moine  a  heretic.  For  the  Jansenists  say  that  the  just 
have  the  power  to  pray,  but  yet  that  there  is  a  neces- 
sity for  efficacious  grace ;  and  this  is  what  you  approve. 
And  M.  le  Moine  says  that  the  just  pray  without 
efficacious  grace,  and  that  is  what  you  condemn." 
"Yes,"  they  replied;  "but  M.  le  Moine  calls  this 
power  proximate  power."  "  But  surely,  my  Fathers," 
said  I,  "  this  is  playing  with  words,  to  say  that  you  are 


92  PASCAL 

in  agreement  by  reason  of  the  common  terms  which 
you  employ,  when  you  differ  in  your  meaning."  The 
Fathers  made  no  answer ;  and  thereupon  by  a  stroke  of 
good  fortune  which  I  thought  extraordinary,  my  friend, 
the  disciple  of  M.  le  Moine,  came  in.  But  I  have 
since  learnt  that  they  have  frequent  intercourse,  and 
that  they  are  continually  meeting. 

I  said,  therefore,  to  the  disciple  of  M.  le  Moine :  "  I 
know  a  man  who  says  that  all  the  just  have  always 
the  power  to  pray  to  God,  but  that  nevertheless  they 
will  never  pray  without  efficacious  grace  to  determine 
them,  and  which  God  does  not  always  give  to  all  His 
elect.  Is  that  heretical  ? "  "  Stop  ! "  said  my  doctor, 
"  you  might  surprise  me.  Let  us  go  gently,  Distinguo :  if 
he  calls  this  power  proximate  power,  he  will  be  a  Thomist 
and  therefore  a  Catholic  ;  if  not,  he  will  be  a  Jansenist 
and  therefore  a  heretic."  "  He  does  not  call  it,"  I  said, 
"  either  proximate  or  not  proximate."  "  He  is  a  heretic 
then,"  said  he ;  "  ask  these  good  Fathers  about  it."  I 
did  not  accept  them  as  judges,  for  they  consented  at 
once  to  what  he  said  by  a  movement  of  the  head. 
But  I  said  to  him :  "  He  refuses  to  accept  this  word 
proximate  because  they  will  not  explain  it."  Upon 
this  one  of  the  Fathers  was  about  to  offer  a  definition ; 
but  he  was  interrupted  by  the  disciple  of  M.  le  Moine, 
who  said  to  him :  "  Do  you  want  to  begin  our  dis- 
agreements over  again  ?  Have  we  not  agreed  not  to 
explain  this  word  proximate,  and  to  use  it  on  both 
sides  without  saying  what  it  means  ?  "  To  which  the 
Jacobins  agreed. 

In  this  way  I  penetrated  their  design,  and  said  in 
rising  to  leave :  "  In  truth,  my  Fathers,  I  am  greatly 
afraid  that  all  this  is  a  pure  chicanery,  and  whatever 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS  93 

may  result  from  your  meetings,  I  venture  to  predict  to 
you  that  if  the  censure  should  be  pronounced,  peace 
would  not  be  established.  For  if  it  should  be  decided 
that  we  must  pronounce  the  syllables  pro-chain,  who 
does  not  see  that,  as  they  have  not  been  explained, 
each  one  of  you  will  claim  the  victory  ?  The  Jacobins 
will  say  that  the  word  must  be  understood  in  their 
sense,  M.  le  Moine  will  say  that  it  is  in  his;  and  so 
there  will  be  many  more  disputes  over  the  explanation 
of  the  word  than  over  its  introduction ;  for,  after  all, 
there  would  be  no  great  danger  in  receiving  it  without 
any  meaning,  since  it  could  hurt  only  by  its  meaning. 
But  it  would  be  a  thing  unworthy  of  the  Sorbonne 
and  of  theology  to  use  words  which  are  ambiguous 
and  captious  without  explaining  them.  For,  once 
more,  my  Fathers,  tell  me,  I  entreat  you  for  the  last 
time,  what  it  is  necessary  for  me  to  believe  in  order  to 
be  a  Catholic."  "It  is  necessary,"  they  answered  all 
together,  "to  say  that  all  the  just  have  proximate 
power  without  attaching  a  meaning  to  the  words: 
Abstrahendo  a  sensu  Thomistarum  et  a  sensu,  ali- 
oruTYi  Theologorum" 

"  That  is  to  say,"  I  remarked  in  leaving  them,  "  that 
one  must  pronounce  this  word  with  the  lips  for  fear  of 
bearing  the  name  of  heretic.  For,  in  short,  is  this  a 
scriptural  word?"  "No,"  they  said.  "Is  it  then  in 
the  Fathers,  or  used  by  the  Councils,  or  by  the  Popes  ?" 
"  No."  "  Is  it  then  in  St.  Thomas  ? "  "  No."  "  What 
necessity  is  there  then  to  use  it,  since  it  has  neither 
authority  nor  in  itself  any  meaning?"  "You  are 
obstinate,"  they  said.  "  You  will  use  the  word,  or  you 
will  be  a  heretic,  and  M.  Arnauld  also ;  for  we  are  the 
majority,  and,  if  it  is  necessary,  we  will  bring  so 


94  PASCAL 

many  Cordeliers  into  the  field  that  we  shall  carry 
the  day." 

I  have  just  left  them  on  this  solid  reason,  in  order  to 
write  to  you  this  account  by  which  you  may  see  that 
there  is  here  no  question  of  any  of  the  following 
points,  and  that -they  were  not  condemned  by  either 
side : — 1.  That  'grace  is"  not  given  to  all  men.  2.  That 
all  the  just  have  power^to  keep  the  commandments  of 
God.  3.  That,  nevertheless,  in  orderv  to  keep  them  and 
even  in  order  to  pray,  they  have  need  of  efficacious  grace 
which  determines  the  will.  4.  That  this  efficacious 
grace  is  not  always  given  to  all  the  just,  and  that  it 
depends  upon  the  pure  mercy  of  God.  So  that  there 
is  nothing  save  the  word  proximate  that  runs  any  risk, 
and  this  without  any  meaning. 

Happy  the  people  who  are  ignorant  of  it !  Happy 
those  who  lived  before  its  birth !  For  I  can  see  no 
other  remedy  but  this,  that  the  members  of  the 
Academy  should,  by  a  stroke  of  authority,  banish  from 
the  Sorbonne  this  barbarous  word  which  causes  so 
many  divisions.  Without  this  the  censure  seems 
assured ;  but  I  can  see  that  it  will  do  no  other  harm 
than  to  render  the  Sorbonne  contemptible  by  this  pro- 
ceeding, which  will  deprive  it  of  the  authority  which 
is  necessary  for  it  in  other  cases. 

I  leave  you,  however,  at  liberty  to  hold  for  the  word 
proximate  or  not.  For  I  love  my  neighbour  too  much 
to  persecute  him  under  this  pretext.  If  this  relation 
does  not  displease  you,  I  will  continue  to  apprise  you 
of  all  that  takes  place. — I  am,  etc. 

We  have  thought  it  well,  in  this  one  case  at  least, 
to  give  the  whole  letter,  that  the  reader  may  judge 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS  95 

of  the  great  qualities  by  which  the  writer  is  dis- 
tinguished. In  that  which  follows,  we  must  be  con- 
tented with  extracts  and  condensations ;  and  however 
carefully  these  may  be  made,  they  can  do  no  sort  of 
justice  to  the  author.  We  have  here  illustrations  of 
nearly  all  the  leading  features  by  which  the  Provincials 
are  marked — the  clearness  of  statement,  the  firm,  un- 
broken chain  of  logic,  the  fine  irony,  sometimes  almost 
sweet  and  again  bitter ;  and  perhaps  less  than  in  some 
of  the  subsequent  letters,  of  that  concentrated  scorn 
which  has  been  spoken  of  as  the  very  note  of  the 
genius  and  style  of  Pascal. 

It  is  an  obvious  remark — although  it  is  more  so  now 
than  it  would  have  been  when  the  letters  were  written 
— that  the  controversy  turns  largely  on  words  and 
phrases  which  have  now,  to  a  large  extent,  lost  their 
meaning.  But  what  controversy  has  ever  taken  place 
from  the  beginning  of  the  world  that  has  not  turned 
largely  on  the  ambiguity  of  speech?  Besides,  the 
controversy  was  none  of  Pascal's  seeking,  nor,  for  that 
matter,  of  Port  Royal.  Nor  was  it,  in  fact,  the  honest 
attempt  to  refute  a  heresy  by  those  who  believed 
themselves  to  be  in  possession  of  the  truth.  It  was 
partly  an  attempt  to  put  down  liberty  of  thought, 
and  partly  a  determination  to  crush  Port  Royal.  One 
might  almost  add,  it  was  an  attempt  to  crush  the 
higher  teaching  of  the  gospel,  since  there  can  be  no 
question  as  to  the  difference  of  tone  and  spirit  between 
the  laxness  of  the  Jesuit  and  the  severe  and  lofty  tone 
of  men  like  St.  Cyran  and  Arnauld. 

The  effect  of  the  first  Provincial  was  immediate, 
extensive,  and  profound.  It  was  read  everywhere, 
even  in  the  Sorbonne;  even  those  who  detested  its 


96  PASCAL 

theology  were  charmed  by  its  wit.  Voltaire  was  no 
mean  judge  of  French  writing,  and  he  declared  that 
Pascal  was  the  true  founder  of  French  prose,  whilst 
he  considered  that  the  wit  of  Moliere  did  not  equal 
that  of  the  early  Provincials.  It  is  indeed  worth 
while  to  quote  his  very  words  (in  his  Age  of 
Louis  XIV.):  "The  first  book  of  genius  which  we 
see  in  prose  is  the  collection  of  Provincial  Letters. 
All  sorts  of  eloquence  are  contained  in  them.  There 
is  not  a  single  word  which,  for  a  hundred  years,  has 
been  affected  by  the  changes  which  so  frequently 
modify  living  languages."  These  letters,  indeed,  have 
been  said  to  unite  the  wit  of  Moliere  to  the  eloquence 
of  Demosthenes ;  but,  whilst  Pascal  had  Demosthenes 
before  him  as  a  model,  his  letters  were  published  before 
Moliere  was  known. 

One  of  the  Solitaries  of  Port  Koyal  des  Champs 
has,  in  his  Journal,  placed  on  record  some  of  the  con- 
sequences of  these  publications  in  the  tracts  to  which 
they  gave  occasion,  he  having  registered  from  day  to 
day  the  information  which  the  friends  of  "the  good 
cause  "  transmitted  to  him.  A  large  part  of  his  Journal 
has  perished,  but  some  fragments  remain;  and  from 
these  we  obtain  a  good  deal  of  information  respecting 
the  progress  of  the  controversy. 

Under  1st  February  1656  he  records :  "  The  letter  to 
a  Provincial  every  day  produces  new  marvels,  showing 
clearly  and  bravely  how  ridiculous  is  the  opinion — or 
rather  the  different  opinions — of  the  Molinists.  All  of 
those  who  have  no  interest  in  the  matter  laugh  at  it ; 
but  the  others  are  furious,  especially  the  Chancellor 
(Father  Segnier),  from  whom  we  are  expecting  some 
new  act  of  violence  on  the  subject."  And  again  under 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS  97 

2nd  February  he  writes :  "  To-day  (Candlemas),  at  half- 
past  eleven,  they  have  taken  prisoner  Savreux,  book- 
seller and  bookbinder,  a  man  very  much  devoted  to  the 
good  cause,  his  wife,  and  two  boys  from  his  shop,  and 
put  them  in  the  prisons  of  the  officiality  (an  ecclesi- 
astical office).  It  is  against  the  law,  and  unheard  of, 
that  a  married  woman  should  be  imprisoned  for  such 
things.  .  .  .  The  letter  to  a  Provincial  is  so  well  done, 
and  shows  with  so  much  cleverness  the  injustice  of 
the  authors  of  the  Censure  (of  Arnauld),  that  it  is 
most  offensive  to  the  adversaries,  and  especially  to  the 
chancellor,  who,  I  hear,  has  been  bled  seven  times  in 
five  or  six  days."  It  is  said  that  the  reading  of  the 
Provincial  had  brought  on  something  like  an  apoplectic 
seizure. 

Again,  under  the  date  3rd  February,  he  tells  of  the 
examination  of  Savreux x  and  his  wife  without  results ; 
and  then  he  proceeds  to  tell  the  truth  about  the  print- 
ing. The  first  two  letters  to  a  Provincial  were  printed, 
he  says,  by  the  Sieur  Petit,  those  letters  "which  by 
their  agreement  and  the  pure  truth  which  they  contain 
have  excited  this  violence  against  these  three  printers 
(Savreux,  Petit,  and  Desprez).  The  commissary  having 
come  to  Petit's  shop  with  several  guards,  and  he  not 
being  there,  his  wife  went  up  to  the  printing  office 
with  the  forms,  although  very  heavy,  in  her  apron, 
passed  down  between  the  commissary  and  guards,  and 
carried  them  into  the  house  of  a  friend  near  at  hand, 
where  during  the  night  they  printed  300  copies  of 
the  second  letter,  and  the  next  day  1200 — a  thing 
which  more  and  more  enrages  the  enemies  of  the  truth, 

1  Madame  Savreux  was  set  at  liberty  on  this  day.     Savreux  and  his 
two  sons,  16th  February. 
7 


98  PASCAL 

and  above  all  the  chancellor,  who  shoots  out  fire  and 
flame  against  M.  Arnauld  and  his  friends  as  the 
authors  of  these  letters,  which  in  their  effect  ruin  the 
censure." 

It  may  be  mentioned  here  that,  after  this,  it  is  be- 
lieved, Petit  did  not  continue  to  print  the  letters.  The 
fifth  was  printed  by  Langlois,  who  was  probably  also 
the  printer  of  the  third  and  fourth. 

The  first  letter  has  different  headings  in  different 
editions,  but  in  all  it  is  described  as  being  on  the 
present  disputes  at  the  Sorbonne,  and  in  none  is  a 
more  particular  enunciation  given  of  the  subject. 
All  editions  of  the  second  have  the  same  heading, 
"On  sufficient  Grace"  (De  la  Grace  suffisante).  The 
date  is  29th  January  1656. 

This  letter  is  a  continuation  of  the  first.  Pascal 
represents  himself  as  applying  again  to  M.  N.  for 
information  on  the  subject  of  sufficient  grace,  as  the 
doctrine  was  held  by  Jansenists,  Jesuits,  and  Domini- 
cans respectively,  the  aim  of  the  writer  being  to  show 
that,  although  the  other  two  parties  had  joined  to 
crush  the  Jansenists,  the  Dominicans  were,  in  reality, 
more  in  accord  with  them  than  with  the  Jesuits. 
These  last  held  that  sufficient  grace  is  given  to  all, 
and  that  it  is  made  efficient  by  the  free  will  of  the 
recipient.  The  Jansenists  held  with  St.  Augustine,  that 
no  grace  is  really  sufficient  which  is  not  also  efficient. 

After  this  he  betook  himself  to  one  of  his  New 
Thomist  friends.  "  He  was  delighted  to  see  me.  '  Well, 
Father,'  said  I,  '  it  is  not  enough  that  all  men  should 
have  a  proximate  power  by  which,  however,  they 
never  really  act;  they  must  also  have  a  sufficient 
grace,  with  which  they  act  as  little :  is  not  that  the 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS  99 

opinion  of  your  school  ? '     '  Yes,'  said  the  good  Father ; 
'and  I  have  said  so  distinctly  at  the  Sorbonne  this 
morning.     I  spoke  there  the  whole  of  my  half -hour ; 
and  had  it  not  been  for  the  sand-glass,  I  should  have 
effected  a  change  in  the  unlucky  proverb  which  already 
circulates  in  Paris :  "  He  gives  his  judgment  with  his 
cap,  like  a  monk  in  the  Sorbonne." '     '  And  what  do 
you  mean  by  your  half -hour  and  your  sand-glass  ? '  I 
asked.     '  Do  they  cut  your  remarks  down  to  a  certain 
measure  ? ' l     '  Yes,'  he  said,  '  for  some  days.'     '  And  are 
you  obliged  to  speak  for  half  an  hour  ? '     '  No ;  you 
may  speak  as  little  as  you  like.'     'But  not  as  much 
as  you  like,'  I  said.     '  Oh,  what  an  excellent  rule  for 
the  ignorant !    Oh,  the  civil  pretext  for  those  who  have 
nothing  good  to  say!      But  at   anyrate,  Father,  this 
grace  which  is  given  to  all  men  is  sufficient.'     'Yes,' 
said  he.     '  And,  nevertheless,  it  has  no  effect  without 
efficient  grace.'     '  That  is  true,'  said  he.     '  And,'  I  con- 
tinued, 'all  men  have  sufficient,  but  not  all  efficient 
grace.'     '  True,'  said  he.     '  That  is  to  say,'  I  answered, 
'that  all  men   have  grace  enough   and  all  have  not 
enough;  that  is,  that  this  grace  suffices,  although  it 
does  not  suffice ;  that  is  to  say,  that  it  is  sufficient  in 
name  and  insufficient  in  effect.     In  good  faith,  Father, 
this  doctrine  is  very  subtle.     Have  you  forgotten,  in 
leaving  the  world,  that  which  we  understand  by  the 
word  sufficient?     Do  you  not  remember  that  it  em- 
braces all  that  is  necessary  in  order  to  action  ?     But 

1  A  vote  to  this  effect  was  carried  in  the  Sorbonne,  16th  January 
1656.  Arnauld's  friends  protested  against  the  restriction,  and  it  was 
generally  neglected.  The  chancellor,  however,  announced  that  the 
king  required  conformity  to  the  rule,  upon  which  more  than  sixty 
doctors  left  the  assembly. 


ioo  PASCAL 

you  have  not  lost  the  remembrance  of  it ;  for,  to  use 
a  comparison  which  will  be  more  obvious  to  you,  if 
one  gave  you  for  dinner  only  two  ounces  of  bread  and 
a  glass  of  water,  should  you  be  contented  with  your 
Prior,  who  should  tell  you  that  this  would  be  sufficient 
to  nourish  you,  under  the  pretext  that,  with  something 
else  which  he  would  not  give  you,  you  would  have  all 
that  would  be  necessary  for  you  in  order  to  dine  well  ? 
How,  then,  do  you  allow  yourself  to  say  that  all  men 
have  sufficient  grace  to  act,  since  you  confess  that 
there  is  another  grace  necessary  in  order  to  act,  which 
all  do  not  possess?  Is  it  that  this  belief  is  of  little 
importance,  and  that  you  leave  men  free  to  believe 
that  efficient  grace  is  necessary  or  not  ?  Is  it,  then,  a 
thing  indifferent  to  say  that  with  sufficient  grace  one 
acts  effectively  ? '  '  How,'  said  the  good  man,  '  in- 
different? It  is  a  heresy,  it  is  a  formal  heresy;  the 
necessity  of  efficient  grace  in  order  to  act  effectively 
is  a  matter  of  faith ;  it  is  a  heresy  to  deny  it.' 

" '  But  where  in  the  world  have  we  got  to  ? '  I  said. 
'  Which  side  am  I  then  to  take  ?  If  I  deny  sufficient 
grace,  I  am  a  Jansenist.  If  I  admit  like  the  Jesuits,  in 
a  way,  that  efficient  grace  is  not  necessary,  I  shall  be 
a  heretic,  you  tell  me.  And  if  I  admit  like  you,  in  a 
way,  that  efficient  grace  is  necessary,  I  sin  against 
common  sense  and  I  am  extravagant,  say  the  Jesuits. 
What  then  must  I  do  in  this  unavoidable  necessity  of 
being  either  extravagant,  or  heretical,  or  Jansenist? 
And  to  what  a  pass  we  are  come,  if  it  is  only  Jesuits 
who  do  not  confound  either  faith  or  reason,  and  who 
save  themselves  at  once  from  folly  and  from  error.' " 

Pascal  goes  on  to  remark  that  his  Jansenist  friend  took 
this  discourse  as  of  good  presage,  and  then  proceeded 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS          101 

to  question  the  Dominican,  who,  driven  into  a  corner,  is 
forced  to  confess  that  they  who  are  monks  must  vote 
in  accordance  with  the  promises  of  their  superiors. 
And  then  he  is  forced  into  a  similar  position  to  that  in 
which  the  defenders  of  proximate  power  found  them- 
selves, namely,  that  he  was  standing  up  for  a  word, 
without  attaching  any  definite  meaning  to  it.  The 
Jansenist  warns  the  New  Thomist  of  the  end  towards 
which  he  is  tending.  "'Your  explanation/  he  says, 
'  would  be  odious  in  the  world.  These  people  speak 
with  sincerity  of  things  less  important.  The  Jesuits 
will  triumph.  It  will,  in  fact,  be  their  sufficient  grace 
which  will  be  established,  and  not  yours,  which  has 
only  the  name;  and  an  article  of  faith  will  be  made 
which  will  be  the  contrary  of  your  beliefs.'  '  We  will 
all  suffer  martyrdom,'  said  the  Father,  'rather  than 
consent  to  the  establishment  of  sufficient  grace  in  the 
sense  of  the  Jesuits ;  St.  Thomas,  whom  we  swear  to 
follow  even  to  the  death,  being  directly  opposed 
to  it.'" 

The  poor  man  is  miserable  in  his  difficulty,  but 
receives  no  comfort  from  the  Jansenist  listener,  who  is 
represented  as  delivering  some  noble  and  elevated 
thoughts  on  the  work  which  had  to  be  done  in  defence 
of  the  doctrines  of  the  faith. 

"'It  is  time,'  he  says,  'that  other  hands  should  be 
armed  for  this  quarrel.  It  is  time  that  God  should 
raise  up  intrepid  disciples  to  the  Doctor  of  Grace 
[Aquinas],  disciples  who,  ignoring  the  engagements  of 
the  world,  serve  God  for  God's  sake.  Grace  may 
indeed  no  longer  have  the  Dominicans  for  defenders; 
but  she  will  never  fail  of  defenders,  for  she  forms  them 
herself  by  her  omnipotent  strength.  She  requires 


102  PASCAL 

hearts  that  are  pure  and  disengaged,  and  she  herself 
purifies  them,  and  disengages  them  from  the  interests 
of  the  world  which  are  incompatible  with  the  truths 
of  the  gospel.  Anticipate  these  warnings,  Father,  and 
take  care  lest  God  remove  this  candlestick  out  of  its 
place,  and  leave  you  in  darkness  and  without  a 
crown/  " 

Pascal  concludes :  "  You  see  then  by  this  that  we 
have  here  a  politic  sufficiency,  similar  to  proximate 
power.  However,  I  can  assure  you  that  it  seems  to  me 
that  one  may,  without  danger,  doubt  of  the  proximate 
power  and  of  this  sufficient  grace,  provided  he  is  not  a 
Jacobin,  In  closing  my  letter,"  he  concludes,  "  I  have 
just  learnt  that  the  Censure  is  pronounced ; 1  but  I  do 
not  yet  know  in  what  terms,  and  it  will  not  be 
published  until  the  15th  of  February." 

It  may  be  worth  while  to  add  the  words  of  the 
Censure  pronounced  by  the  Sorbonne:  "The  first 
proposition,  which  is  a  matter  of  fact,  is  presumptuous, 
scandalous,  offensive  to  the  pope  and  to  the  bishops  of 
France;  and,  moreover,  gives  occasion  for  the  entire 
removal  of  the  doctrine  of  Jansenius,  which  has  been 
already  condemned.  As  for  the  second,  which  relates 
to  the  question  of  right,  it  is  presumptuous,  impious, 
blasphemous,  smitten  with  anathema,  and  heretical." 

Between  the  second  and  third  letters  there  comes  a 
"  reply  from  the  Provincial  to  the  first  two  letters  of 
his  friend,"  which  was  published  at  the  head  of  the 
third  letter.  Some  controversy  has  arisen  as  to  the 
authorship  of  this  letter,  and  of  the  extracts  embodied 
in  it.  This  is  a  question  which  cannot  now  be  settled. 
If  Pascal  himself  wrote  them,  they  are  not  unworthy 
1  On  31st  January  1656. 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS          103 

of  him.  Thus  he  makes  a  member  of  the  Academy 
write  to  him,  and  speaks  of  him  with  charming  irony 
as  "  one  of  the  most  illustrious  among  those  men  who 
are  all  illustrious,"  a  phrase  which  has  never  been 
forgotten.  This  academician  declares  that  he  would 
"condemn  by  authority,  banish,  proscribe,  he  had 
almost  said  exterminate  with  all  his  might,  this 
proximate  power  which  makes  so  much  noise  about 
nothing,  and  without  any  further  knowledge  of  what  it 
wants.  He  is  sorry,  he  adds,  that  the  power  of  the 
academicians  is  too  limited  to  allow  of  their  doing  this. 
And  then  the  Provincial  quotes  from  another  letter 
written  by  one  to  a  lady  who  had  sent  him  the  first  of 
the  letters.  "You  cannot  imagine,"  he  says,  "how 
much  obliged  I  am  to  you  for  the  letter  you  have  sent 
me.  It  is  immensely  ingenious  and  perfectly  well 
written.  It  tells  you  without  telling  ;  it  clears  up  the 
most  confused  matters  possible ;  its  raillery  is  exquisite ; 
it  instructs  even  those  who  know  but  little ;  it  doubles 
the  pleasure  of  those  who  do  know  something.  It  is, 
besides,  an  excellent  apology,  and,  if  you  like,  a  delicate 
and  innocent  censure.  And,  in  fact,  there  is  so  much 
art,  so  much  intelligence,  and  so  much  judgment  in  this 
letter,  that  I  should  much  like  to  know  who  wrote  it," 
etc. 

Even  in  English  this  sounds  remarkably  like  Pascal ; 
and  if  it  is  his,  he  was  amply  justified  in  speaking  thus 
of  his  own  work.  It  is  perhaps  more  probable  that 
it  was  written  by  one  of  his  friends ;  but,  if  he  wrote 
it,  he  would  certainly  derive  some  pleasure  from  the 
increased  difficulty  of  the  problem  he  was  furnishing 
to  the  foes  of  Port  Royal. 

The  third  letter  had  reference  to  the  Censure,  and 


104  PASCAL 

was  declared  in  the  superscription,  dated  9th  February 
1656,  "to  serve  as  an  answer  to  the  preceding,"  with  a 
second  title,  which  appears  in  all  our  present  printed 
editions,  but  apparently  not  in  all  the  original  ones: 
"Injustice,  absurdity,  and  nullity  of  the  Censure  of 
M.  Arnauld."  This,  at  least,  correctly  sets  forth  the 
contents  of  the  letter.  It  produced  even  a  greater 
impression  on  the  public  than  the  first  two.  So  we  are 
informed  by  the  Journal  of  M.  Saint-Gilles  under  date 
of  12th  February:  "The  third  letter  to  a  Provincial 
touching  the  matters  of  grace,  and  particularly  on  the 
censure  of  the  letter  of  M.  Arnauld  by  the  Molinists, 
has  begun  to  appear  to-day  with  an  e*clat  and  an 
amount  of  applause  still  greater  than  the  two  preceding 
ones.  The  copies  have  been  distributed  in  Paris  and 
throughout  the  provinces  by  dozens,  and  the  success 
which  attends  them  everywhere  is  incredible.  It  is 
found  that  these  little  pieces  produce  a  much  greater 
effect  than  the  other  letters,  although  longer  and  more 
important;  since  in  a  very  short  time  the  truth  is 
conveyed  in  an  agreeable  manner  to  the  mind." 

Near  the  beginning  of  the  letter  the  writer  reminds 
his  correspondent  of  the  way  in  which  the  Jansenists 
had  been  treated.  "  Remember,"  he  says,  "  the  strange 
impressions  of  the  Jansenists  which  we  have  received 
so  long.  Recall  in  memory  the  cabals,  the  mistakes, 
the  factions,  the  schisms,  the  outrages,  of  which  they 
have  so  long  been  accused ;  in  what  manner  they  have 
been  decried  and  blackened  in  the  pulpits  and  in 
books ;  and  how  this  torrent,  which  has  had  so  much 
violence  and  duration,  has  increased  in  these  later  years, 
in  which  they  have  been  accused  openly  and  publicly 
of  being  not  only  heretics  and  schismatics,  but  apostates 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS          105 

and  infidels  ;  of  denying  the  mystery  of  transubstantia- 
tion,  and  of  renouncing  Jesus  Christ  and  the  gospel. 
They  have  chosen  the  second  letter  of  M.  Arnauld, 
which,  they  said,  was  full  of  the  most  detestable  errors. 
For  examiners  of  it  they  have  appointed  his  most 
declared  enemies.  .  .  .  Yet  for  all  this  the  proposition 
which  they  select  is  such  that  they  can  find  in  it 
nothing  which  is  not  so  clearly  and  formally  expressed 
in  the  passages  of  the  Fathers  which  M.  Arnauld  has 
adduced  in  this  connection,  that  I  have  never  seen  any- 
one who  could  understand  the  difference.  Yet  it  was 
imagined  that  there  was  a  terrible  difference,  since  the 
passages  of  the  Fathers  being  Catholic,  it  was  necessary 
that  the  proposition  of  M.  Arnauld  must  be  horribly 
contrary  to  them  in  order  to  be  heretical. 

"It  was  from  the  Sorbonne  that  we  expected  this 
enlightenment.  All  Christendom  had  eyes  open  in 
order  to  see  in  the  censure  of  these  doctors  this  point 
which  was  so  imperceptible  to  the  common  run  of  men. 
However,  M.  Arnauld  makes  his  defence,  and  gives  in 
columns  his  proposition  and  the  passages  of  the  Fathers 
from  which  he  took  it,  in  order  to  make  the  agreement 
apparent  to  the  least  discerning." 

This  being  so,  he  goes  on,  every  one  was  in  expecta- 
tion of  having  the  divergences  pointed  out.  "But, 
alas !  our  expectation  has  been  disappointed.  Whether, 
because  those  good  Molinists  have  not  lowered  them- 
selves in  order  to  instruct  us  on  the  subject,  or  for 
some  other  mysterious  reason,  they  have  done  nothing 
but  pronounce  these  words  :  '  This  proposition  is  rash, 
impious,  blasphemous,  smitten  with  anathema,  and 
heretical.' " 

This  being  so,  the  writer   makes  application  to  a 


io6  PASCAL 

doctor  of  the  Sorbonne  who  has  held  himself  neutral 
on  the  question,  and  asks  him  to  point  out  the  differences 
between  the  proposition  of  Arnauld  and  the  teachings  of 
the  Fathers.  He  was  amused  at  the  question,  and  said : 
"  Do  you  imagine  if  there  had  been  any  difference,  they 
would  not  have  pointed  it  out  ? " 

" '  But  how/  said  I,  '  the  thing  being  so,  their  censure 
is  useless ;  for  what  credence  can  be  given  to  it  when  it 
is  seen  that  it  is  without  foundation,  and  refuted  by  the 
answers  which  are  made  to  it  ? '  '  Ah/  said  my  doctor, 
'  if  you  knew  the  mind  of  the  people,  you  would 
speak  in  another  fashion.  Their  censure,  censurable  as 
it  is,  will  have  all  its  effect  for  a  time ;  and  although, 
by  showing  its  invalidity,  it  is  quite  certain  that  it 
will  be  found  out,  it  is  equally  true  that  at  first  the 
majority  will  be  as  strongly  struck  by  it  as  by  the  most 
just  criticism  possible.  Provided  that  it  is  only  cried 
in  the  streets,  "  Here  is  the  Censure  of  M.  Arnauld, 
here  is  the  condemnation  of  the  Jansenists,"  the  Jesuits 
will  have  their  story,  How  few  there  will  be  who  read 
it !  How  few  of  those  who  read  it  will  understand  it ! 
How  few  who  will  perceive  that  it  does  not  meet 
the  objections !  Who  do  you  think  there  will  be  that 
will  lay  the  matter  to  heart,  and  who  will  undertake  to 
examine  it  to  the  foundation  ?  See  then  how  all  this 
helps  the  enemies  of  the  Jansenists.  They  are  sure  in 
that  way  to  triumph,  for  some  months  at  least,  although, 
as  usual  with  them,  the  triumph  is  vain.  It  is  much 
for  them.  By  and  by  they  will  find  out  some  new 
means  of  subsistence.  They  live  from  day  to  day.  It 
is  in  that  way  that  they  have  maintained  themselves 
until  now,  sometimes  by  a  catechism,  where  a  child 
condemns  their  adversaries ;  sometimes  by  a  procession, 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS          107 

where  sufficient  grace  leads  efficient  grace  in  triumph ; 
sometimes  by  a  comedy  where  the  devils  carry  off 
Jansenius ;  or  again  by  an  almanac,  and  now  by  this 
censure.  .  .  .'" 

"  M.  le  Moine,  the  most  ardent  of  the  examiners, 
said  to  a  doctor  who  is  a  friend  of  mine :  '  This 
proposition  would  be  catholic  in  another  mouth ;  it  is 
only  in  M.  Arnauld  that  the  Sorbonne  has  condemned  it.' 
And  so  admire  the  machines  of  Molinism,  which  make 
such  prodigious  inversions  of  things  in  the  Church,  that 
what  is  Catholic  in  the  Fathers  becomes  heretical  in 
M.  Arnauld ;  that  what  was  heretical  in  the  Semi- 
Pelagians  becomes  orthodox  in  the  writings  of  the 
Jesuits;  that  the  ancient  doctrine  of  St.  Augustine 
becomes  an  intolerable  novelty ;  and  that  the  new  inven- 
tions which  are  fashioned  every  day  in  our  sight  pass 
for  the  ancient  faith  of  the  Church.  Then  he  left  me. 

"  This  instruction  opened  my  eyes.  I  learnt  that  we 
have  here  a  heresy  of  a  new  kind.  It  is  not  the 
sentiments  of  M.  Arnauld  which  are  heretical ;  it  is 
only  his  person.  It  is  a  personal  heresy.  He  is  not 
a  heretic  for  what  he  has  said  or  written,  but  only 
because  he  is  M.  Arnauld.  This  is  all  that  can  be  said 
against  him.  Whatever  he  may  do,  unless  he  ceases 
to  exist,  he  will  never  be  a  good  Catholic.  The  grace 
of  St.  Augustine  will  never  be  true  whilst  he  defends 
it.  It  will  become  so,  if  he  should  come  to  attack  it. 
That  would  be  a  sure  blow,  and  almost  the  only  means 
of  establishing  this  doctrine  and  destroying  Molinism ; 
so  much  misfortune  does  he  bring  to  the  opinions 
which  he  embraces.  Let  us  then  leave  here  their 
disputes.  They  are  disputes  of  theologians  and  not 
of  theology."  This  letter  is  signed  by  the  initials: 


io8  PASCAL 

E.  A.  A.  B.  P.  A.  F.  D.  E.  P.,  which  are  generally  in- 
terpreted to  stand  for :  Et  ancien  ami,  Blaise  Pascal, 
Auvergnat,  fils  de  ^tienne  Pascal. 

The  fourth  Provincial  turns  right  on  the  Jesuits. 
They  had  been  referred  to  before,  but  now  they  are  to 
be,  for  a  time,  the  main  object  of  attack;  and  this  will 
be  continued  throughout  the  thirteen  following  letters, 
which  deal  mainly  with  the  casuistical  system  of  this 
Order. 

It  may  be  well,  however,  before  entering  upon  this 
part  of  Pascal's  work  to  complete  the  subject  dis- 
cussed in  the  first  three  Provincials, — a  subject  which 
is  taken  up  again  in  the  last  two  letters,  so  that  these 
five  epistles  (1,  2,  3,  17,  18)  form  a  complete  treatise 
apart  from  the  intermediate  letters. 

Whilst  Pascal  was  continuing  his  attack  on  the 
Jesuits,  several  replies  were  attempted,  and  attacks 
on  the  author  of  the  letter.  Father  Annat  had  spoken 
of  the  unknown  author  of  the  Provincials  as  the 
secretary  of  Port  Royal.  Pascal  replies  to  this  in 
the  seventeenth  Provincial :  "  You  suppose,  in  the  first 
place,  that  the  writer  of  the  letters  belongs  to  Port 
Royal.  You  further  remark  that  Port  Royal  is  de- 
clared heretical,  from  whence  you  conclude  that  the 
writer  of  the  letters  is  declared  heretical.  It  is  not  upon 
me,  Father,  that  the  weight  of  this  accusation  falls,  but 
upon  Port  Royal,  and  you  charge  me  with  heresy  only 
because  you  suppose  I  belong  to  it.  So  I  shall  have 
no  great  trouble  to  defend  myself  from  the  charge, 
since  I  have  only  to  say  to  you  that  I  do  not  belong  to 
Port  Royal ;  and  to  refer  you  to  my  letters,  where  I 
have  said  that  I  am  alone,  and  in  so  many  terms  that 
I  do  not  belong  to  Port  Royal." 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS          109 

It  is  quite  understood  in  what  sense  Pascal  used  this 
language,  and  that  he  might  with  equal  truth  have 
spoken  of  himself  as  belonging  to  Port  Royal.  He  was 
not  one  of  the  Solitaries,  he  therefore  did  not  belong 
to  the  community  of  Port  Royal  in  the  exact  sense  of 
the  words.  Moreover,  it  could  hardly  be  said  that  he 
had  his  regular  place  of  abode  at  Port  Royal,  since 
he  had  a  house  in  Paris  in  which  he  probably  wrote 
most  of  the  letters,  although  the  first  two  were  prob- 
ably written  at  Port  Royal.  Moreover,  he  is  believed  to 
have  been  in  constant  communication  with  the  Society 
of  the  Solitaries,  who  furnished  him  with  a  good  deal 
of  the  theological  material  for  his  letters. 

In  the  last  two  letters  (17th  and  18th)  the  writer 
deals  with  the  question  of  the  separation  of  right 
and  fact.  And  he  declares  that  the  five  propositions 
were  quite  properly  condemned  by  the  Pope;  that 
this  condemnation  was  received  by  the  so-called  Jan- 
senists  with  entire  respect,  and  that  they  are  quite 
ready  to  subscribe  this  condemnation.  The  only  point 
of  disagreement,  and  that  about  which  so  great  a 
noise  was  raised,  is  the  question  as  to  whether  these 
propositions,  which  are  condemned  by  the  whole 
world,  are  or  are  not  word  for  word  in  Jansenius — 
which,  he  says,  is  a  question  of  fact,  not  of  right  or 
of  faith ;  a  question  of  indifference,  on  which  one  may 
have  one  opinion  or  another,  according  as  one  has 
read  or  has  not  read  Jansenius,  and  as  in  reading  him 
he  has  found  the  propositions  or  has  not  found  them, — 
a  question,  in  short,  in  regard  to  which  one  may  be  in 
error  without  having  the  least  heretical  opinion;  for 
the  Pope  and  the  Church,  which  are  judges  of  the  faith, 
may  themselves  make  a  mistake  as  to  matters  of  fact. 


no  PASCAL 

He  then  gives  examples  of  popes  who  have  made 
mistakes  in  regard  to  questions  of  fact,  such  as  Pope 
Zacharias  excommunicating  St.  Virgilius  on  the  subject 
of  the  Antipodes,  the  decree  of  Rome  which  proscribed 
the  opinion  of  Galileo  and  the  movement  of  the  earth. 
"  But  this  does  not  prove,"  he  goes  on,  "  that  it  stands 
still ;  and  if  by  constant  observations  it  is  proved  that 
it  is  the  earth  that  revolves,  the  whole  united  human 
race  will  not  prevent  its  turning,  nor  themselves  from 
turning  with  it.  And  so,"  he  goes  on,  "  if  all  the  world 
should  agree  to  condemn  the  five  propositions,  and 
should  disagree  only  on  the  question  as  to  whether 
they  are  contained  textually  in  a  certain  book,  a 
simple  fact  appreciable  by  the  senses  and  the  judgment, 
all  this  noise  which  is  made  in  the  Church  goes  for 
nothing — 'pro  nihilo,  Father/  as  St.  Bernard  remarks." 
And  this  is  his  conclusion  on  the  controversy — much 
noise  about  nothing. 

It  would  take  more  space  than  can  here  be  given  to 
indicate,  even  in  outline,  the  merits  of  this  discussion  of 
the  doctrine  of  grace,  but  a  few  words  may  here  be  added 
on  the  subject.  It  will  have  been  remarked  that  the 
Jesuits  and  the  opponents  of  the  Jansenists  habitually 
identified  the  teaching  of  the  latter  with  that  of  Luther 
and  Calvin.  Such  an  accusation  was  certainly  not 
just.  There  was  a  distinct  and  appreciable  difference 
between  Augustine  and  Calvin,  although  practically 
it  may  not  seem  considerable.  Augustine's  teaching 
was  sublapsarian ;  according  to  him  the  divine  decrees 
assumed  the  fact  of  the  Fall.  Calvin's  teaching  was 
supralapsarian ;  the  divine  decrees  were  said  to  include 
the  Fall.  Augustine  taught  Election  and  Preterition, 
Calvin  taught  Election  and  Reprobation.  The  teach- 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS          in 

ing  of  Luther  differs  hardly  at  all  from  that  of  Augus- 
tine. As  for  the  Jansenists,  instead  of  their  teaching 
exceeding  that  of  the  great  Father  whom  they  professed 
to  follow,  it  seems  that  on  one  point  they  fell  short  of 
the  contention  of  Augustine  and  Calvin,  holding  that 
grace  might  be  resisted.  Whether  their  teaching  on 
this  subject  was  perfectly  consistent  may  be  doubted ; 
but,  at  anyrate,  it  ought  to  have  brought  them  a  step 
nearer  to  their  antagonists. 

The  Jesuit  side  was  subsequently  advocated  by  the 
Abbe  Dumas,  A.D.  1700,  in  an  anonymous  work  entitled 
History  of  the  Five  Propositions  of  Jansenius;  and 
the  Abbe  Maynard,  in  his  excellent  edition  of  the 
Provincial  Letters,  has  appended  a  set  of  notes,  distin- 
guished by  erudition  and  acumen,  which  are  designed 
to  correct  the  misrepresentations  of  the  author  of  the 
letters.  Theologically  both  of  these  writers  often  make 
good  their  position;  but  the  genius  and  brilliancy  of 
their  great  antagonist  remain  untouched.  As  regards 
theological  knowledge,  Pascal  made  no  pretensions  to 
extensive  reading  on  this  subject,  and  had  to  be  pre- 
pared for  some  points  in  the  controversy  by  the  men, 
some  of  them  learned  theologians,  with  whom  he  co- 
operated. A  good  story  is  told  of  the  result  of  an 
interview  between  him  and  Father  Thomassin  of  the 
Oratory,  which  will  illustrate  this  point.  After  a 
conference  of  two  hours,  the  worthy  Father  is  reported 
to  have  said  to  himself  as  he  took  his  leave :  "  There 
is  a  young  man  of  immense  intelligence,  but  who  is 
very  ignorant ; "  whilst  Pascal,  after  turning  his  back 
on  his  instructor,  remarked :  "  There  is  a  good  man 
who  is  tremendously  learned,  but  who  has  but  little 
intelligence." 


H2  PASCAL 

Leaving  these  theological  questions,  we  return  to 
the  letters  which  assail  the  Jesuits,  and  more  par- 
ticularly the  moral  theology  and  casuistry  of  the 
Order,  the  most  famous  and  the  most  powerful  of 
the  Provincials.  These  extend  from  the  fourth  to 
the  sixteenth  letter.  The  questions  here  discussed,  if 
they  cannot  be  called  more  important  than  those 
relating  to  divine  grace  and  man's  free  will,  will 
appear  to  be  of  a  more  practical  character,  and  of 
such  a  nature  that  they  can  be  grasped  by  thoughtful 
and  intelligent  minds  without  any  considerable  amount 
of  learning. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  Provincial,  Pascal 
seems  to  have  felt  the  necessity  of  continuing  the 
argument  on  grace,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  re- 
sumed and  completed  in  the  last  two  letters ;  but  his 
own  convictions  and  the  counsels  of  friends  led  him  to 
concentrate  his  attack  on  the  Jesuits,  whom  he  knew 
to  be  the  relentless  foes  of  Port  Eoyal.  They  had  made 
the  controversy  personal  rather  than  theological,  he 
had  said.  It  was  not  the  theology,  but  the  person  of 
Arnauld  that  they  objected  to.  He  would  not,  indeed, 
imitate  their  mode  of  warfare ;  but  he  would  carry  the 
war  into  the  enemy's  country. 

The  attack  on  the  morality  of  the  Jesuits  did  not 
begin  with  Pascal.  St.  Cyran  in  1626  had  denounced 
their  moral  teaching  in  a  criticism  of  the  Summa  of 
Father  Garasse.  Arnauld  in  1643  had  given  a  number 
of  extracts  from  their  writings  which  he  had  severely 
criticised.  The  Faculty  of  Theology  of  Paris  in  1641 
had  censured  the  moral  teaching  of  Father  Baunay, 
and  in  1644  the  University  had  condemned  that  of 
Father  Hereau.  But  Pascal  drew  the  attention  of  the 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS          113 

world  to  the  subject,  and  made  it  that  it  should  never 
be  forgotten. 

"  Sir,"  he  begins  his  fourth  letter,  "  there  is  nothing 
like  the  Jesuits.  I  have  seen  Jacobins,  doctors,  and 
people  of  every  kind ;  but  my  knowledge  was  incom- 
plete until  I  made  this  visit.  Others  only  copy  them. 
If  you  would  understand  things,  you  must  go  to  their 
source."  Here  begins  the  fight  with  the  Jesuits,  and 
it  goes  on  to  the  end  of  the  tenth  letter  in  the  form 
of  "  Conversations  with  the  good  Father  Casuist  on 
Morality,  the  doctrine  of  Probability,  the  direction  of  the 
intention,  accommodations,  the  inutility  of  the  love  of 
God,  the  easiness  of  Confession,  and  the  political  design 
of  the  whole.  At  the  close  of  the  eleventh,  the  author 
replies  to  attacks,  to  pretended  refutations,  to  calum- 
nies ;  he  leaves  the  ingenious  and  indirect  offensive  for 
the  defensive,  but  for  a  defensive  which  is  open,  show- 
ing a  broad  side,  which  could  give  little  pleasure  to  the 
attackers.  The  Provincial  to  whom  he  addressed  his 
first  letters  has  disappeared.  He  turns  upon  the  re- 
verend Fathers  themselves  and  addresses  them ;  it  is  to 
their  face  that  he  proclaims  the  truth." x 

Up  to  the  tenth  letter  he  uses  the  Socratic  dialogue. 
From  the  eleventh  to  the  sixteenth  he  adopts  the  form 
of  the  oration,  and  has  been  here  compared  to  Demos- 
thenes and  Cicero.  Voltaire  remarks  that  there  are  all 
kinds  of  eloquence  in  these  compositions. 

The  fairness  of  Pascal  has  been  gravely  impugned 
by  the  defenders  of  the  Jesuits;  and  even  his  own 
friends  have  acknowledged  that  occasionally  he  may 
have  done  them  a  measure  of  injustice  from  the  manner 
in  which  he  has  presented  his  arguments  against  them. 
1  Sainte  Beuve. 


H4  PASCAL 

But  there  is  no  reason  to  think  that  he  wilfully  mis- 
represented them,  or  that  actually  there  is  in  his  letters 
anything  which  gives  a  false  view  of  their  language 
or  their  teaching.  Indeed,  there  seems  not  the  least 
reason  to  call  in  question  his  own  profession  on  this  sub- 
ject, when  he  declares  that  he  has  derived  his  opinions 
respecting  the  teaching  of  the  Jesuits  from  their  own 
writings.  He  does  not  profess,  he  says,  to  have  read 
all  the  books  he  has  quoted ;  he  could  not  have  thought 
of  wasting  his  time  on  such  bad  books ;  but  two  things 
he  had  done — in  the  first  place,  he  had  read  Escobar 
twice  through ;  and  the  others  he  had  got  his  friends 
to  read.  Moreover,  he  had  never  quoted  a  passage 
without  carefully  examining  it  in  its  context,  so  that 
he  took  every  possible  precaution  against  misrepre- 
sentation. To  those  who  know  Pascal  in  all  his  writings 
such  an  explanation  is  unnecessary.  He  was  a  man 
incapable  of  falsehood  in  any  shape  or  form — a  thing 
which  certainly  could  not  be  said  of  his  antagonists. 

It  may  be  of  interest  here  to  quote  an  important 
testimony  on  this  subject.  Chateaubriand,  in  his 
earlier  days,  had  declared  not  only  that  the  Jesuits 
were  no  longer  dangerous,  but  he  went  so  far  as  to  say, 
"The  Provincial  Letters  have  deprived  the  Company 
of  Jesus  of  its  moral  force ;  and  yet  Pascal  is  only  a 
calumniator  of  genius;  he  has  left  us  an  immortal 
falsehood." 1  To  this,  Sainte  Beuve  tells  us,  he  replied, 
denying  the  truth  of  the  accusation,  and  adding :  "  The 
illustrious  writer  whom  we  venture  to  contradict,  per- 
haps in  his  presence,2  has  misunderstood  the  conscience 

1  Analyse  raisonnee  de  VHistoire  de  France,  tome  v.  p.  448,  Paris, 
1831. 
9  As  member  of  the  Academy, 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS          115 

of  Pascal,  and  flattered  his  genius  at  the  expense  of  his 
virtue."  But  even  before  these  words  were  uttered 
Chateaubriand  had  done  more  justice  to  Pascal  and  his 
defender.  When  he  was  Ambassador  from  France  to 
the  Holy  See,  and  saw  the  methods  adopted  by  the 
Company  at  the  election  of  Pius  vili.  to  the  papacy,  in 
1829,  he  got  such  a  view  of  the  Jesuits  that  he  was  led 
to  express  himself  in  the  following  manner :  "  I  ought 
to  confess  that  the  Jesuits  had  seemed  to  me  to  be  too 
badly  treated  by  public  opinion.  I  was  formerly  their 
defender,  and  since  they  have  been  attacked  in  these 
later  times  I  have  neither  said  nor  written  a  word 
against  them.  I  had  taken  Pascal  for  a  calumniator 
of  genius,  who  had  left  us  an  immortal  falsehood ;  I 
am  now  forced  to  acknowledge  that  he  has  not  exag- 
gerated in  the  least.  The  letter  of  Father  Pavani  has 
the  appearance  of  having  escaped  from  Escobar  him- 
self ;  it  would  fit  to  a  marvel  in  the  Provincial  Letters. 
Since  it  says  everything  and  says  nothing.  Since  all 
the  words  of  it  are  so  weighed  that  they  may  be  inter- 
preted as  may  be  necessary;"  and  more  to  the  same 
effect.  Pascal,  then,  neither  did  injustice  nor  intended 
to  do  injustice  to  the  Company  of  Jesus. 

Before  passing  on  to  Pascal's  attack  on  Jesuit 
casuistry, — the  part  of  his  letters  which  has  left  the 
deepest  and  most  permanent  impression  upon  the  minds 
of  his  readers, — it  may  be  useful  to  say  a  few  words 
on  the  subject  of  Probabilism,  which  occupies  so  pro- 
minent a  place  in  these  letters.  It  has  been  said 
that  the  theory  of  Probabilism  was  not  the  inven- 
tion of  the  Jesuits;  and  to  a  certain  extent  this 
is  true.  But  it  is  equally  true  that  the  Jesuit  theo- 
logians have  been  principally  concerned  in  the  working 


n6  PASCAL 

out  of  the  theory,  and  have  been  the  most  distinguished 
defenders  of  it. 

But  what  is  Probabilism  ?  It  is  a  theory  of  the 
lawfulness  of  human  action ;  and  it  teaches  that  men 
may  act,  and  that  directors  may  advise  men  to  act,  on 
a  probable  opinion,  even  when  they  are  themselves 
convinced  of  another  opinion  which  is  more  probable. 
There  are,  in  fact,  three  theories  of  action  advocated 
by  casuists — Probabilism,  Probabiliorism,  and  Tutiorism. 
A  probable  opinion  is  one  which  has  the  support  of 
any,  even  one  approved  doctor  of  the  Church.  A 
more  probable  opinion  is  one  which  has  the  support  of 
a  greater  amount  of  authority.  Probabilism  teaches 
that  we  may  follow  the  less  probable  opinion  even  if 
our  conscience  is  against  it.  Probabiliorism,  on  the 
contrary,  teaches  that  we  are  bound  to  follow  that 
which,  on  the  whole,  seems  the  more  probable  opinion. 
Tutiorism,  again,  counsels  the  adoption  of  the  safer 
opinion ;  for  example,  the  opinion  that  God  exists,  and 
that  He  has  revealed  Himself,  would  be  safer  than  the 
opinion  that  there  is  no  God,  or  no  God  that  can  be 
known. 

It  is  perhaps  in  the  fifth  letter  that  we  have  some  of 
the  best  examples  of  Pascal's  attacks  on  the  casuistry 
of  the  Jesuits  in  the  form  of  dialogue.  He  begins  this 
letter  by  assuring  his  correspondent  that  he  will  now 
fulfil  his  promise  of  making  him  acquainted  with  the 
moral  teaching  of  the  "  good  Jesuit  Fathers."  He  derives 
his  information  from  his  friend,  the  Jesuit  Father,  who 
tells  him  of  the  way  in  which  Jesuit  confessors  make 
it  easy  for  their  penitents.  He  found  it  difficult  to 
believe  this,  because  he  knew  some  who  were  as 
severe  as  others  were  lax,  so  that  it  was  difficult  for 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS          117 

him  to  believe  that  both  could  belong  to  the  same 
Society.  And  he  asks,  "  How  can  the  same  superiors 
consent  to  maxims  so  different  ? "  "  That  is  what  you 
must  be  taught,"  is  the  answer ;  and  the  Father  pro- 
ceeds: "Know  then  that  it  is  not  their  object  to 
corrupt  men's  manners  [as  some  of  their  enemies  had 
accused  them  of  doing].  That  is  not  their  design. 
But  it  is  not  their  only  aim  to  reform  them.  That 
would  be  bad  policy.  Here  is  their  thought.  They 
have  a  sufficiently  good  opinion  of  themselves  to  believe 
that  it  is  useful,  and  even  necessary,  for  the  benefit  of 
religion,  that  their  credit  should  extend  everywhere, 
and  that  they  should  govern  all  consciences.  And 
because  the  severe  evangelical  maxims  are  proper  for 
the  government  of  some  sorts  of  persons,  they  make 
use  of  these  on  such  occasions  as  are  favourable  to 
them.  But  as  these  maxims  are  not  in  agreement  with 
the  plan  of  most  persons,  they  leave  them  when  deal- 
ing with  such  persons,  so  as  to  have  the  means  of 
satisfying  everyone.  It  is  for  this  reason  that,  having 
to  do  with  persons  of  all  sorts  and  conditions,  and 
belonging  to  different  nations,  it  is  necessary  to  have 
casuists  suited  to  all  this  diversity. 

"  From  this  principle  you  can  easily  judge  that,  if 
they  had  only  lax  casuists,  they  would  ruin  their  prin- 
cipal design,  which  is  to  embrace  everyone,  since  those 
who  are  truly  pious  want  a  guidance  which  is  more 
severe.  But,  as  there  are  not  many  of  this  kind,  there 
is  no  need  of  many  severe  directors  to  guide  them. 
They  have  a  few  for  the  few,  whilst  the  multitude  of 
lax  confessors  offer  themselves  for  the  multitude  of 
those  who  want  laxity. 

"  It  is  by  this  obliging  and  accommodating  conduct, 


i i 8  PASCAL 

as  Father  Petau  calls  it,  that  they  hold  out  their  arms 
to  the  whole  world.  For,  if  anyone  presents  himself 
to  them  who  is  quite  resolved  to  restore  any  ill-gained 
goods,  be  not  afraid  that  they  will  turn  him  away  from 
it.  On  the  contrary,  they  will  praise  and  confirm  a 
resolution  so  holy.  But  let  another  come  who  wishes 
to  have  absolution  without  restitution,  it  will  be  a  very 
difficult  matter  indeed  if  they  do  not  provide  the  means 
of  evading  the  duty,  for  which  they  will  make  them- 
selves responsible. 

"  By  this  means  they  preserve  all  their  friends,  and 
defend  themselves  against  all  their  enemies.  For,  if 
they  are  reproached  with  their  extreme  laxity,  they 
immediately  produce  in  public  their  austere  directors, 
and  the  books  which  they  have  composed  on  the  rigour 
of  the  Christian  life ;  and  the  simple  people,  and  those 
who  do  not  go  deeply  into  things,  are  satisfied  with 
these  proofs. 

"  Thus  they  have  provision  for  all  sorts  of  persons, 
and  respond  so  well  to  the  demands  made  upon  them, 
that,  when  they  find  themselves  in  a  country  in  which 
a  God  crucified  passes  for  '  foolishness,'  they  suppress 
the  scandal  of  the  Cross,  and  preach  only  Jesus  Christ 
in  glory,  and  not  Jesus  Christ  suffering ;  as  they  have 
done  in  the  Indies  and  in  China,  where  they  have  even 
allowed  idolatry  to  Christians  by  the  subtle  device 
of  permitting  them  to  conceal  under  their  clothes  an 
image  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  which  they  teach  them  to 
refer  mentally  all  the  public  worship  which  they  render 
to  the  idol  Chacim-Choan  and  to  their  Confucius,  with 
which  the  Dominican  Gravina  reproaches  them;  and 
as  is  testified  by  the  memorial  in  Spanish  presented  to 
King  Philip  iv.  of  Spain  by  the  Cordeliers  of  the 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS          119 

Philippine  Islands,  related  by  Thomas  Hurtado  in  his 
book  on  the  Martyrdom  of  the  Faith,  p.  427 ;  so  that 
the  Congregation  of  Cardinals,  De  propaganda  Fide, 
were  obliged  to  forbid  the  Jesuits  in  particular,  on 
penalty  of  excommunication,  to  allow  the  adoration  of 
idols  under  any  pretext,  and  to  conceal  the  mystery  of 
the  Cross  from  those  whom  they  instructed  in  religion ; 
commanding  them  expressly  not  to  receive  any  to 
baptism  until  they  had  obtained  this  knowledge,  and 
to  exhibit  in  their  churches  the  image  of  the  crucifix, 
— all  which  is  fully  set  forth  in  the  decree  of  this 
Congregation,  given  on  the  9th  of  July  1646,  signed 
by  Cardinal  Capponi." 

It  is  but  right  to  mention  here  that  the  Abbe*  May- 
nard  regards  this  statement  as  "  one  of  the  most  odious 
calumnies  of  Pascal,"  and  says  that  he  blushes  to  have 
to  refute  it.     But  what  does  his  refutation  amount  to  ? 
In  the  first  place,  he  tells  us  of  the  heroic  and  self- 
sacrificing  missionary  work  of  the  Jesuits,  which  cer- 
tainly  demands   respect   and    admiration.      Then    he 
minimises  the  doings  in  China,  but  he  does  not  deny 
that   the   Dominicans   made   these   accusations.      Nor 
does  he  deny  that  the  Congregation,  surely  not  without 
reason,  issued  such  a  decree  as  that  of  which  Pascal 
speaks.     But  it  was  in  1645,  not  in  1646 ;  and  in  the 
month  of  September,  not  in  the  month  of  July ;  nor,  he 
says,  was  it  signed  by  Cardinal  Capponi,  "  who  never 
existed,"  but  by  Cardinal  Ginetti;  and  he  adds,  not 
unreasonably,  that  even  these  slight  inaccuracies  ought 
not  to  have  been  found  in  connection  with  so  serious 
an  accusation.     Moreover,  he  says,  the  decree  was  not 
addressed  to  the  Jesuits  in  particular,  but  to  the  mis- 
sionaries in  general. 


120  PASCAL 

That  Pascal  should  have  made  some  such  slight 
errors  in  statement  is  neither  wonderful  nor  highly 
reprehensible.  The  facts  remain  that  complaints  had 
been  made  against  the  Jesuits  on  the  grounds  stated 
by  Pascal,  and  that  the  Congregation  had  issued  a 
decree  against  the  practices  complained  of.  And  even 
if  no  distinction  was  made  between  the  different  orders 
of  missionaries,  it  could  hardly  be  denied  that  the 
Jesuits  were  the  most  "accommodating." 

Pascal's  Jansenist  informant  assured  him  that  he 
would  find   in  the  Jesuit   relaxation  of  morality  the 
cause  of  their  doctrine  touching  grace.     "  You  will  see 
there,"  he  says,  "  the  Christian  virtues  unrecognisable 
and  deprived  of  charity,  which  is  their  soul  and  life. 
You  will  see  so  many  crimes  so  palliated  and  so  many 
disorders    allowed,   that  you   will   no   longer   find   it 
wonderful    that   they   maintain    that    all   men   have 
always  enough  grace  to  live  in  piety  as  they  under- 
stand it.     As  their  morality  is  entirely  heathen,  nature 
suffices  for  its  observance.      When   we  maintain  the 
necessity   for   efficient   grace,   we    give   other   virtues 
as  its  object.  .  .  .  Law  and  reason  are  graces  sufficient 
for  those  effects.     But  to  disengage  the  soul  from  the 
love  of  the  world,  to   detach  it   from   that   which  it 
holds  most  dear,  to  make  it  die  to  itself,  to  unite  it 
with  God,  and  to  carry  it  up  simply  and  invariably  to 
Him,  is  the  work  of  nothing  else  but  an  omnipotent 
hand.     And  it  is  as  little  reasonable  to  pretend  that 
one  has  always   full  power   to   do   this,  as   it   would 
be  to   deny   that   those   virtues   which    are  destitute 
of  the  love  of  God,  which   those  good   Fathers  con- 
found  with   Christian    virtues,   are   not   in   our   own 
power." 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS          121 

Here  we  are  touching  upon  a  subject  which,  under 
different  forms,  runs  through  the  whole  of  the  letters ; 
and  Pascal  connects  it  with  his  other  grievances 
against  the  Order.  He  declares  that  his  informant 
spoke  of  the  errors  of  the  Jesuits  with  sorrow,  and 
recommended  him  to  have  recourse  to  "  a  good  casuist 
of  the  Society."  Having  found  a  kind  old  friend 
of  this  character,  he  began  with  some  of  his  diffi- 
culties, and  first  with  the  trouble  he  had  in  obeying 
the  Church's  law  of  fasting.  "  He  exhorted  me,"  says 
Pascal,  "  to  do  violence  to  myself ;  but  as  I  continued 
to  complain,  he  was  touched,  and  tried  to  find  some 
reason  for  a  dispensation.  He  offered  me  several,  in 
fact,  which  did  not  suit  me,  when  he  advised  me  to 
consider  with  myself  whether  I  had  not  some  difficulty 
in  sleeping  without  supping.  'Yes,'  I  said,  'Father, 
and  that  frequently  obliges  me  to  have  a  collation  at 
midday  and  to  sup  at  night.'  '  I  am  very  glad,'  he 
said,  '  to  have  found  this  means  of  solacing  you  without 
sin ;  go,  you  are  not  required  to  fast.  I  do  not  wish 
you  to  believe  me,'  he  said ;  '  come  to  the  library.'  We 
went,  and  then,  taking  a  book,  '  Here  is  the  proof,'  he 
said ;  '  and  God  knows  what  a  proof.  It  is  Escobar.' 
'  Who  is  Escobar,  Father  ? '  I  asked.  '  What !  don't  you 
know  who  Escobar  of  our  Society  is,  who  has  compiled 
this  Moral  Theology  of  our  Fathers  to  the  number  of 
twenty-four  ? '  .  .  .  Then,  having  looked  out  the  passage 
on  fasting,  '  Here  it  is/  he  said  to  me,  '  at  tr.  1,  ex.  13, 
n.  67 :  "  Is  one  who  cannot  sleep  if  he  has  not  supped 
under  the  obligation  to  fast  ?  By  no  means."  Are 
you  not  satisfied  ? '  '  No,  not  entirely/  I  said, '  for  I 
can  endure  fasting  by  having  a  collation  in  the  morn- 
ing and  supping  in  the  evening.'  'But  see  how  it 


122  PASCAL 

goes  on,'  he  said.  '  They  have  thought  of  everything : 
"And  what  shall  we  say  if  one  can  dispense  with  a 
collation  in  the  morning  by  supping  in  the  evening  ? " 
Now  mark !  "  Still  one  is  not  obliged  to  fast,  for  no 
one  is  obliged  to  change  the  order  of  his  meals." '  '  Oh, 
the  excellent  reason/  said  I.  '  But  tell  me/  he  went 
on, '  do  you  make  use  of  much  wine  ? '  '  No,  Father/ 
I  said,  'I  cannot  bear  it/  'I  said  that  to  you/  he 
replied,  '  in  order  to  warn  you  that  you  could  drink  of 
it  in  the  morning,  and  when  you  liked,  without  break- 
ing your  fast;  and  that  holds  always.  Here  is  the 
decision  of  the  point  in  the  same  place,  n.  75 :  "  May 
one,  without  breaking  his  fast,  drink  wine  at  any  hour 
that  he  pleases,  and  even  in  large  quantity  ?  He  may, 
and  even  hippocras."  I  did  not  remember  that  hip- 
pocras/  he  said ;  '  I  must  put  it  in  my  list/  '  What  an 
excellent  man/  I  said, '  is  Escobar/  '  Everbody  loves 
him/  replied  the  Father.  'He  makes  such  pretty 
questions.  Mark  this  one  which  comes  from  the  same 
place,  n.  38 :  "If  a  man  doubts  whether  he  is  twenty- 
one  years  of  age,  is  he  obliged  to  fast  ?  No.  But 
if  I  am  to  be  twenty-one  this  night,  one  hour  after 
midnight,  and  if  to-morrow  is  a  day  of  fasting,  shall 
I  be  obliged  to  fast  to-morrow?  No.  And  for  this 
reason,  that  you  might  eat  as  much  as  you  liked,  from 
midnight  till  one  o'clock,  since  you  would  then  be 
twenty-one ;  and  thus,  having  the  right  to  break  your 
fast,  you  are  under  no  obligation  to  fast." '  '  Oh,  how 
entertaining  that  is  ! '  I  said.  '  One  cannot  get  away 
from  it/  he  said.  '  I  spend  days  and  nights  in  reading 
it.  I  do  nothing  else/ 

"Then  arose  a  question  as  to  the  occasions  of  sin. 
The  Jesuit  Father  said  it  was  not  always  a  duty  to 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS          123 

avoid  them,  and  he  was  asked  whether  they  might  be 
sought.  'That,'  he  says,  'is  sometimes  permitted. 
The  celebrated  casuist,  Basil  Ponce,  has  said  in  his 
Treatise  on  Penitence,  9.  4,  p.  94 ;  and  Father  Bauny 
quotes  him  with  approval :  "  One  may  seek  an  occasion 
of  sin  directly  and  for  itself — primo  et  per  se — when 
the  spiritual  or  temporal  good  of  ourselves  or  our 
neighbour  prompts  us  to  it." '  '  Truly,'  said  I, '  it  seems 
to  me  that  I  am  dreaming  when  I  hear  the  religious 
speak  in  this  fashion.  But  really,  Father,  tell  me, 
on  your  conscience,  are  you  of  that  opinion  ? '  '  Cer- 
tainly not,'  said  the  Father.  '  You  speak  then,'  I  went 
on,  '  against  your  conscience  ? '  '  Not  at  all/  said  he. 
'  In  that  matter  I  did  not  speak  according  to  my  con- 
science, but  according  to  that  of  Ponce  and  Father 
Bauny.  And  you  might  follow  them  in  safety,  for 
they  are  able  men.'  '  What,  Father/  said  I,  '  because 
they  have  put  these  three  lines  in  their  book,  will  it 
be  allowed  to  seek  occasions  of  sin  ?  I  thought  that 
we  should  take  for  our  rule  only  the  sacred  Scriptures 
and  the  tradition  of  the  Church,  but  not  your  casuists.' 
'  Oh,  good  God ! '  cried  the  Father, '  you  remind  me  of 
those  Jansenists.  Do  you  think  that  Father  Bauny  and 
Basil  Ponce  cannot  render  their  opinion  probable  ? ' 
'I  am  not  contented  with  the  probable/  I  said;  'I 
want  the  certain.'  *  I  see  well/  said  the  good  Father, 
'that  you  do  not  know  the  doctrine  of  probable 
opinions.  You  would  speak  differently  if  you  did. 
Truly  I  must  instruct  you  in  it ;  you  will  not  have 
wasted  your  time  coming  here.  Without  that  you 
could  have  understood  nothing.  It  is  the  foundation 
and  the  A  B  C  of  our  whole  morality/ 

"I   was  delighted,"   says  the  author,   "to   see   him 


124  PASCAL 

caught  as  I  wished ;  and  having  testified  my  satisfac- 
tion to  him,  I  entreated  him  to  explain  to  me  what  is 
a  probable  opinion.  '  Our  authors  will  answer  you  in 
that  matter  better  than  I,'  said  he.  *  Mark  how  they 
all  speak  of  it  generally,  and  among  others  our  twenty- 
four,  in  Princ.  ex.  3,  n.  8:  "An  opinion  is  called 
probable,  when  it  is  founded  upon  reasons  of  some 
consideration.  Whence  it  sometimes  happens  that  a 
single  author  of  importance  and  weight  may  render 
an  opinion  probable."  And  the  reason  is  given  in  the 
same  place:  "For  a  man  specially  addicted  to  study 
would  not  adhere  to  an  opinion  if  he  were  not  drawn  to 
it  by  a  reason  good  and  sufficient." '  '  And  so/  I  said, 
'  a  single  doctor  may  turn  and  upset  men's  consciences 
at  his  will,  and  always  with  safety.'  '  You  must  not 
laugh  at  this/  he  said, '  nor  think  to  combat  this  doc- 
trine. When  the  Jansenists  have  tried  to  do  it,  they 
have  wasted  their  time.  It  is  too  well  established. 
Listen  to  Sanchez,  who  is  one  of  the  most  celebrated 
of  our  Fathers,  Sum.  1.  1,  c.  9,  n.  7  :  "  You  will  perhaps 
doubt  if  the  authority  of  a  single  good  and  learned 
doctor  renders  an  opinion  probable.  To  which  I 
answer,  Yes.  And  mark  how  it  is  proved.  A  prob- 
able opinion  is  that  which  has  a  considerable  founda- 
tion. Now,  the  authority  of  a  learned  and  pious  man 
is  not  of  small  consideration,  but  rather  of  great  con- 
sideration. For"  —  mark  well  this  reason — "if  the 
testimony  of  such  a  man  is  of  great  weight  in  assur- 
ing us  that  a  thing  has  passed,  for  example,  in  Home, 
why  should  it  not  be  of  the  same  value  in  a  doubt 
respecting  morality  ? "  '  What  a  pleasant  comparison/ 
I  said  to  him, '  of  things  of  the  world  to  those  of  the 
conscience ! '  *  Have  patience/  said  he,  '  Sanchez  replies 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS          125 

to  that  in  the  lines  immediately  following :  "  And  the 
restriction  which  certain  authors  adduce  does  not 
please  me,  that  the  authority  of  such  a  doctor  is 
sufficient  in  things  of  human  law,  but  not  in  those  of 
divine  law.  For  it  is  of  great  weight  in  both." ' " 

After  this  Pascal  declares  that  such  a  doctrine  was 
very  convenient  and  accommodating ;  for  one  could 
never  be  compelled  to  answer  a  question,  Yes  or  No. 
" '  And  I  see  well  now/  he  goes  on, '  how  useful  are  the 
contradictory  opinions  which  your  doctors  have  on 
every  subject ;  for  the  one  always  serves  you  and  the 
other  never  hurts  you.  If  you  do  not  find  your 
account  on  the  one  side  you  go  to  the  other,  and  always 
with  safety.'  '  That  is  true,'  he  said,  '  and  so  we  can 
always  say  with  Diana,  who  found  Father  Bauny  with 
him  when  Father  Lugo  was  against  him — 

"Ssepe  premente  Deo,  fert  Deus  alter  opem." 
If  one  God  presses  us,  another  delivers  us.' 

'  I  quite  understand,'  I  said, '  but  a  difficulty  occurs  to 
my  mind :  it  is  that  after  having  consulted  one  of  your 
authors,  and  having  taken  from  him  a  somewhat  liberal 
opinion,  one  may  be  caught  if  he  meets  a  confessor 
who  is  not  of  that  way  of  thinking,  and  who  refuses 
absolution  unless  one  changes  his  opinion.  Have  you 
considered  this  difficulty,  Father  ? '  'Do  you  doubt  of 
it  ? '  he  said.  '  They  are  obliged  to  absolve  their  penitents 
who  have  probable  opinions,  on  penalty  of  mortal  sin, 
so  that  they  may  not  fail  here.  This  is  well  explained 
by  our  Fathers,  and  among  others  by  Father  Bauny, 
tr.  4,  de  Pcenit.  q.  13,  p.  93 :  "  When  the  penitent,"  he 
says,  "  follows  a  probable  opinion,  the  confessor  ought  to 
absolve  him,  although  his  own  opinion  may  be  contrary 


126  PASCAL 

to  that  of  the  penitent." '  '  But/  said  I, '  he  does  not  say 
that  it  is  a  mortal  sin  to  refuse  to  absolve  him.'  '  How 
precipitate  you  are/  he  replied ;  '  listen  to  what  follows, 
he  makes  an  express  statement  on  the  subject :  "  To 
refuse  absolution  to  a  penitent  who  acts  according  to  a 
probable  opinion  is  a  sin  which  in  its  nature  is  mortal." 
And  in  confirmation  of  this  sentiment  he  quotes  three 
of  the  most  famous  of  our  Fathers,  Suarez,  Vasquez, 
and  Sanchez.' 

"'Oh,  Father/  I  replied,  'how  prudently  all  this  is 
arranged !  There  is  no  more  to  fear ;  a  confessor 
would  no  longer  dare  to  go  wrong.  I  did  not  know 
that  you  had  power  to  command  on  pain  of  damnation. 
I  thought  that  you  could  only  remove  sins ;  I  did 
not  think  that  you  could  introduce  them.  But,  from 
what  I  see,  you  have  all  power.'  '  You  do  not  speak 
correctly/  he  said.  '  We  do  not  introduce  sins,  we  only 
point  them  out.  I  have  already  noted  two  or  three 
times  that  you  are  not  a  good  scholastic.'  '  However 
that  may  be,  Father/  said  I,  'my  doubt  is  resolved 
satisfactorily.' " 

He  then  made  inquiry  of  the  Jesuit  Father  as  to 
what  they  would  do  in  case  they  found  the  Fathers 
opposed  to  any  of  their  casuists,  and  received  for 
answer  that  the  Fathers  were  good  for  their  time,  but 
they  are  too  far  removed  from  ourselves  to  be  quite 
applicable  to  our  case;  so  that  our  morality  is  not 
regulated  by  them,  but  by  the  new  casuists;  so  that, 
says  Pascal,  at  the  arrival  of  the  Jesuit  Company  we 
have  seen  Augustine,  Chrysostom,  Ambrose,  and  Jerome 
and  the  others  disappear,  as  far  as  the  teaching  of 
morality  is  concerned ;  and  then  he  asks  for  the  names 
of  the  casuists  who  have  supplanted  them,  and  receives 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS          127 

for  answer  no  fewer  than  forty-five  names,  including 
those  already  mentioned  and  many  others.  On  hearing 
this  long  list,  he  exclaims  in  terror,  "  Oh,  Father,  were 
all  those  people  Christians  ? "  "  How,  Christians ! "  he 
answered ;  "  did  I  not  tell  you  that  these  are  the  only 
men  by  whom  we  now  govern  Christendom  ?  " 

Immediately  after  the  publication  of  the  fifth  letter 
there  occurred  the  "miracle"  of  the  Holy  Thorn  at 
Port  Royal  des  Champs,  in  which  not  only  Pascal,  but  a 
large  proportion  of  the  public  at  that  period  firmly 
believed,  and  of  which  we  will  shortly  give  an  account. 

At  present,  however,  it  may  be  as  well  to  carry  on 
and  complete  our  account  of  the  Provincial  Letters. 
We  have  already  spoken  extensively  of  the  early 
letters;  and  in  those  which  immediately  follow  the 
same  general  subject  is  carried  on,  and  in  the  same 
manner,  by  something  like  the  Socratic  method.  In 
the  sixth  letter  the  writer  takes  up  the  artifices  by 
which  the  Jesuits  endeavour  to  elude  the  authority  of 
the  gospel,  the  councils,  and  the  popes,  and  shows 
some  of  the  evil  consequences  which  result  from  their 
teaching  on  Probability.  In  the  seventh  he  takes  up 
the  knotty  question  of  intention,  which  he  shows  to  be 
subject  to  manifold  abuses;  as,  for  example,  in  the 
permission  given  by  some  of  their  casuists  to  kill 
another  in  defending  one's  honour  and  his  property,  a 
permission  which  is  extended  even  to  priests  and 
religious.  Both  of  these  letters  were  received  with 
great  delight,  and  circulated  throughout  the  whole  of 
France.  The  seventh  even  reached  the  hands  of 
Cardinal  Mazarin,  who  was  much  diverted  with  it. 

At  the  time  of  the  publication  of  the  seventh  letter 
Pascal  was  living  at  an  hotel  in  the  Rue  des  Poiriers, 


128  PASCAL 

under  the  name  of  M.  de  Mons,  a  name  which  belonged 
to  a  branch  of  his  family.  While  there  he  received  a 
visit  from  his  brother-in-law,  M.  PeYier,  who  announced 
himself  as  a  gentleman  from  the  provinces,  without 
mentioning  his  relationship  to  Pascal.  Father  Defrelat, 
a  Jesuit,  who  was  related  to  both,  came  to  see  M. 
Perier,  and  told  him  there  was  a  prevalent  opinion  that 
his  brother-in-law  was  the  author  of  the  Little  Letters, 
saying  that  he  had  better  warn  him  of  this,  and  advise 
him  to  discontinue  such  dangerous  work.  Perier 
thanked  him  for  his  advice,  informing  him  at  the  same 
time  that  it  was  useless ;  "  for,"  he  said,  "M.  Pascal  cannot 
prevent  your  suspicions ;  and  even  if  he  should  deny 
that  the  letters  were  his,  you  would  not  believe  him. 
If,  therefore,  you  will  continue  to  suspect  him,  I  see 
no  remedy  for  it ! "  What  made  the  interview  more 
uncomfortable  to  Perier  was  the  fact  that  a  number  of 
copies  of  the  seventh  letter  were  lying  on  his  bed  to  dry. 
Happily  the  curtains  were  drawn,  so  that  Father 
Defrelat  saw  nothing.  Immediately  after  his  departure 
Perier  went  upstairs  to  Pascal,  and  told  him ;  where- 
upon they  both  had  a  good  laugh  at  the  manner  in 
which  the  Jesuit  had  been  outwitted.  The  Abbe 
Maynard  remarks  that  they  had  already  studied  at  the 
school  of  the  Society ! 

The  eighth  letter  on  the  "  corrupt  maxims "  of  the 
casuists,  referring  to  judges,  usurers,  bankrupts,  etc.,  has 
been  thought  somewhat  heavy  on  account  of  the  number 
of  texts  and  quotations  with  which  it  is  laden ;  and  it 
appears  that  Pascal  had  thought  of  discontinuing  the 
letters  at  this  point.  Among  his  papers  the  following 
note  is  found :  "  After  my  eighth,  I  thought  I  had  made 
sufficient  answer."  We  should  have  lost  much  if  he  had 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS          129 

adhered  to  this  conviction.  The  eighth  letter  was  dated 
28th  May  1656.  It  was  on  3rd  July  of  the  same  year  that 
he  began  the  ninth,  which  certainly  cannot  be  charged 
with  any  want  of  liveliness  or  interest.  He  begins  in 
the  following  style :  "  I  will  pay  you  no  more  compli- 
ments than  the  good  Father  did  to  me  the  last  time  I 
saw  him.  As  soon  as  he  perceived  me,  he  came  to  me 
and  said,  looking  at  a  book  which  he  held  in  his  hand : 
'  Will  not  he  who  shall  open  paradise  to  you,  oblige  you 
perfectly  ?  Would  you  not  give  millions  of  gold  to  have 
the  key,  and  to  enter  whenever  it  seemed  good  to  you  ? 
You  need  not  enter  at  a  very  great  expense.  Here  is 
one  key,  indeed  a  hundred  at  a  very  low  price.'  I  did 
not  know  whether  the  good  Father  was  reading  or 
speaking  of  himself ;  but  he  put  an  end  to  my  doubt 
by  saying :  '  Those  are  the  first  words  of  a  fine  book  by 
Father  Barry  of  our  Society.  The  title  of  this  book  is 
Paradise  opened  by  a  Hundred  Devotions  to  the  Mother 
of  God  easy  to  practise ; ' "  and  Pascal,  in  his  dialogue 
with  the  Jesuit  Father,  shows  how  the  Jesuits  have 
fostered  a  false  devotion  to  the  Blessed  Virgin,  and 
further,  how  they  have  invented  facilities  in  order  to 
enable  Christians  to  attain  salvation  without  difficulty 
among  the  softnesses  and  conveniences  of  life.  He  then 
proceeds  to  examine  their  maxims  on  ambition,  envy, 
gluttony,  equivocation,  mental  reservations,  the  liberty 
allowed  to  girls,  the  dresses  of  women,  play,  and 
hearing  Mass.  In  the  tenth  Provincial,  written  about 
a  month  later,  he  carries  on  the  same  kind  of  examina- 
tion of  the  teaching  of  the  Jesuit  casuists  on  the 
subjects  of  Confession,  Penitence,  Absolution,  Contrition, 
and  the  Love  of  God. 

It  has  been  said  that  Pascal  calumniated  the  Jesuits 
9 


130  PASCAL 

in  representing  them  as  superficially  amiable  and  affec- 
tionate, while  profoundly  cruel  and  persecuting.  But 
at  least  the  world  has  justified  Pascal.  Sainte  Beuve 
speaks  of  the  Jesuit  spirit  as  on  the  one  hand  caress- 
ing and  enervating,  and  on  the  other  diabolical  and 
calumniating,  which  at  the  same  time  did  not  hate 
with  an  honest  and  vigorous  hatred.  It  is  to  this 
that  Pascal  refers  in  the  fifth  letter  (quoted  above) 
when  he  says,  "  The  good  Father  gave  me  a  thousand 
caresses,  for  he  always  loves  me."  An  example  of  this 
spirit  is  given  in  the  doings  of  the  Inquisition,  in 
connection  with  which  it  is  related  that  between  two 
tortures,  after  a  horrible  description  of  the  sufferings, 
it  is  added  that  the  judges  addressed  the  victim  with 
benignity  (benigne  allocuti  sunt) ! 

A  report  had  been  circulated  about  this  time  that 
Pascal  regretted  the  publication  of  the  Provincials; 
and  by  way  of  confirmation  of  this  rumour,  a  story 
was  told  of  the  Marquise  de  Sable  having  asked  Pascal 
if  he  was  quite  sure  of  the  truth  of  the  contents  of 
his  letters,  and  of  his  having  answered  that  this  was 
the  business  of  those  from  whom  he  received  his  infor- 
mation. The  story  in  all  its  details  is  a  pure  invention, 
since  we  have  the  clear  testimony  of  Pascal's  niece, 
Marguerite  Perier,  on  the  subject.  She  tells  us  that 
Pascal  was  asked  a  year  before  his  death  if  he  re- 
pented having  written  the  Provincials,  and  this  was 
his  answer :  "1.  I  answer,  That,  far  from  regretting,  if 
I  had  to  do  it  again,  I  should  make  them  stronger. 
2.  I  have  been  asked  why  I  have  mentioned  the  names 
of  the  authors  from  whom  I  have  taken  all  those 
abominable  propositions  which  I  have  quoted.  I 
answer,  If  I  was  in  a  town  in  which  there  were  a 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS          131 

dozen  fountains,  and  I  knew  certainly  that  one  of  them 
was  poisoned,  I  should  be  bound  to  warn  everyone  not 
to  go  and  draw  water  at  that  fountain;  and  as  it 
might  be  thought  that  this  was  a  pure  imagination  on 
my  part,  I  should  be  under  obligation  to  name  the 
person  who  had  poisoned  it,  rather  than  expose  the 
whole  city  to  being  poisoned.  3.  I  have  been  asked 
why  I  employed  a  style  pleasant,  bantering,  diverting. 
I  answer,  If  I  had  written  in  a  dogmatic  style,  only 
the  learned  would  have  read  my  letters,  and  they  had 
no  need  of  them,  since  they  knew  at  least  as  much  as 
I  did  of  the  subject.  So  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  write 
in  such  a  manner  that  my  letters  would  be  read  by 
women  and  men  of  the  world,  so  that  they  might  be 
acquainted  with  the  danger  of  all  these  maxims  and 
propositions  which  were  being  spread  abroad,  and  which 
people  too  readily  believed.  4.  I  have  been  asked  if 
I  have  myself  read  all  the  books  which  I  have  quoted. 
I  answer,  No.  In  that  case  it  would  have  been 
necessary  for  me  to  have  passed  a  great  part  of  my 
life  in  reading  very  bad  books ;  but  I  have  twice  read 
the  whole  of  Escobar,  and,  as  for  the  others,  I  have  had 
them  read  by  some  of  my  friends ;  but  I  have  not  made 
use  of  a  single  passage  without  having  read  it  myself 
in  the  book  quoted,  or  without  having  examined  the 
matter  with  reference  to  which  it  is  brought  forward, 
or  without  having  read  that  which  precedes  and  follows, 
so  as  not  to  run  the  danger  of  quoting  an  objection 
for  an  answer,  a  thing  which  would  have  been  repre- 
hensible and  unjust."  That  Pascal  did  not  change  his 
opinion  of  the  Jesuits  in  his  last  days  is  clear  enough 
from  some  of  his  utterances  in  the  Thoughts.  At 
this  place  let  one  suffice:  "The  Pope  is  very  easily 


132  PASCAL 

surprised  [misled]  by  reason  of  his  engagements  and 
the  credence  which  he  gives  to  the  Jesuits ;  and  the 
Jesuits  are  quite  capable  of  surprising  him  for  the 
sake  of  calumny."  Throughout  his  later  life  Pascal 
cherished,  and  thought  himself  bound  to  cherish,  a 
fervent  indignation  against  this  Order.  This  is  well 
expressed  in  the  words  of  Sainte  Beuve :  "  When  Pro- 
metheus first  moulded  the  human  clay,  and  caused  to 
enter  into  it  a  portion  of  each  kind  of  animal,  he 
placed,  down  in  the  heart,  a  spark  of  the  wrath  of  the 
lion  (insani  leonis  vim).  This  spark,  blind,  yet,  when 
moderated  and  controlled  as  it  ought  to  be,  remaining 
an  essential  part  of  every  generous  man,  and  not  neces- 
sarily dying  out  in  the  Christian,  belonged  to  Arnauld. 
He  had  something  of  the  lion,  it  has  been  said ;  and  some- 
thing of  the  lion  must  be  in  every  true  heart.  So  also 
Pascal,  along  with  the  most  brilliant  intellectual  gifts, 
possessed  intact  this  frank  faculty  of  moral  indignation. 
There  is  no  longer  any  trace  of  this  in  the  human  heart, 
which  has  been  crushed  by  Jesuitry ;  and,  unfortunately, 
it  has  not  always  been  replaced  by  divine  meekness." 

It  has  already  been  remarked  that  there  is  a  great 
difference  of  tone  from  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh 
Provincial.  The  letters  are  no  longer  addressed  to  the 
Provincial,  but  to  the  Jesuit  Fathers  (Aux  R.R.  P.P. 
Jesuites) ;  they  are  no  longer  dialogues,  they  are  now 
of  the  nature  of  orations.  The  eleventh  begins  with 
a  defence  of  his  method,  with  a  contention  that  raillery 
is  a  lawful  weapon  to  employ  against  folly.  Answer- 
ing the  reproaches  of  the  Jesuits  that  he  has  turned 
sacred  things  into  ridicule:  "In  truth,  Fathers,"  he 
says,  "there  is  a  great  deal  of  difference  between 
laughing  at  religion,  and  laughing  at  those  who  pro- 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS          133 

fane  it  by  their  extravagant  opinions.  It  would  be 
an  impiety  to  fail  in  respect  for  the  truths  which  the 
Spirit  of  God  has  revealed;  but  it  would  be  another 
impiety  to  fail  in  scorn  for  the  falsehoods  which  the 
spirit  of  man  opposes  to  them.  For,  my  Fathers,  since 
you  compel  me  to  enter  upon  this  discourse,  I  pray 
you  to  consider  that,  as  the  Christian  verities  are 
worthy  of  love  and  respect,  the  errors  which  are  con- 
trary to  them  are  worthy  of  scorn  and  hatred ;  because 
there  are  two  things  in  the  verities  of  our  religion :  a 
divine  beauty  which  renders  them  lovable,  and  a 
sacred  majesty  which  renders  them  venerable;  and 
that  there  are  also  two  things  in  errors :  the  impiety 
which  renders  them  horrible,  and  the  impertinence 
which  renders  them  ridiculous.  And  it  is  for  this 
reason  that  the  saints,  as  they  have  for  truth  those 
two  sentiments  of  love  and  fear,  and  as  their  wisdom 
is  comprehended  in  the  fear  which  is  its  principle  and 
the  love  which  is  its  end,  have  also  for  error  those  two 
sentiments  of  hatred  and  scorn,  and  their  zeal  is  em- 
ployed equally  in  repelling  with  force  the  malice  of 
the  impious,  and  confounding  with  ridicule  their  errors 
and  their  folly."  Here  already  we  are  sensible  of 
something  of  that  difference  of  tone  to  which  Madame 
de  Sevigne  has  drawn  attention.  Throughout  the 
whole  of  this  letter  he  defends  the  use  which  he  had 
made  of  ridicule  by  the  practice  of  other  writers,  and 
even  of  those  who  are  inspired.  At  the  end  of  the 
letter  he  writes :  "  In  finishing  this  letter  I  have  seen 
a  writing  which  you  have  published,  in  which  you 
accuse  me  of  imposture  on  the  subject  of  six  of  your 
maxims  which  I  have  reported,  and  of  correspondence 
with  the  heretics.  I  hope  that  in  a  very  short  time, 


134  PASCAL 

my  Fathers,  you  will  see  an  exact  reply  to  this,  after 
which  I  believe  you  will  have  no  disposition  to  con- 
tinue this  sort  of  accusation." 

The  twelfth  letter,  dated  9th  September  1656,  which 
professes  to  be  a  refutation  of  the  quibbles  (chicanes) 
of  the  Jesuits  on  Almsgiving  and  Simony,  is  no  less 
remarkable.  It  begins :  "  I  was  ready  to  write  to  you, 
my  Fathers,  on  the  subject  of  the  insults  which  you 
have  inflicted  upon  me,  for  so  long,  in  your  writings,  in 
which  you  call  me  '  impious,  buffoon,  ignorant,  joker,  im- 
postor, caluminator,  knave,  heretic,  Calvinist  in  disguise, 
disciple  of  Dumoulin,  possessed  by  a  legion  of  devils/ 
and  whatever  you  please.  I  wished  to  make  the 
world  understand  why  you  treat  me  in  such  a  fashion, 
for  I  should  be  sorry  that  they  should  believe  all  that 
of  me ;  and  I  had  resolved  to  complain  of  your  calum- 
nies and  your  impostures  when  I  had  seen  your 
answers  in  which  your  accuse  me  of  the  same,"  and  so 
forth.  After  examining  their  statements  throughout 
the  letter,  he  remarks :  "  I  pity  you,  my  Fathers,  for 
having  recourse  to  such  remedies.  The  insults  which 
you  inflict  upon  me  will  not  explain  our  differences, 
and  the  threats  which  you  utter  in  so  many  fashions 
will  not  prevent  me  from  defending  myself.  You 
think  you  have  power  and  impunity;  but  I  believe 
I  have  truth  and  innocence.  It  is  a  strange  and  pro- 
tracted war  when  violence  attempts  to  oppress  the 
truth.  .  .  .  There  is  this  extreme  difference,  that  vio- 
lence has  only  a  course  limited  by  the  command  of  God, 
who  controls  its  effects  to  the  glory  of  the  truth  which 
it  attacks ;  whilst  truth  subsists  eternally,  and  finally 
triumphs  over  its  enemies,  because  it  is  eternal  and 
powerful,  even  as  God."  There  can  be  no  question 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS          135 

of  the  sincerity  of  the  man  by  whom  these  words  were 
written. 

The  thirteenth  letter,  which  continues  the  discussion 
on  homicide,  has  towards  the  end  a  startling  refer- 
ence to  the  day  of  judgment,  when  he  says :  "  Vasquez 
will  condemn  Lessius  on  one  point,  as  Lessius  will 
condemn  Vasquez  on  another;  and  all  your  authors 
will  rise  in  judgment,  the  one  against  the  other,  in 
mutual  condemnation,  for  their  intolerable  outrages 
against  the  law  of  Jesus  Christ." 

The  fourteenth  letter,  which  continues  the  same 
subject,  has  a  peroration  no  less  striking,  with  a 
"comic  application"  of  the  doctrine  of  probability, 
whilst  the  fifteenth  becomes  again  keen  and  mocking, 
so  that  it  has  been  said,  "Pascal  has  made  sport  of 
the  Jesuits  through  all  eternity."  An  eminent  French 
writer  has  declared  that  these  closing  letters,  and 
especially  the  fourteenth,  might  be  placed  beside  the 
greatest  orations  of  antiquity,  whilst  the  Philippics  of 
Demosthenes  and  of  Cicero  had  nothing  more  powerful 
or  more  perfect. 

.  The  assembly  of  the  French  clergy  received  the  Bull 
of  Alexander  vn.,  17th  March  1657,  just  before  the 
publication  of  the  eighteenth  Provincial.  This  Bull 
was  intended  to  put  an  end  to  all  doubts  respecting 
the  application  of  other  papal  decrees,  for  example, 
that  of  Urban  vni.,  1643 ;  and  professed  to  settle  the 
question  of  fact,  specifically  declaring  that  the  five 
propositions  contained  de  facto  Jansenist  error.  After 
receiving  the  Bull  the  assembly  drew  up  a  formulary 
condemning  Jansenius,  and  requiring  all  the  clergy  to 
sign  it.  This  was  a  great  blow  to  Port  Royal ;  and 
Pascal,  taking  up  his  pen  to  continue  his  Provincials, 


136  PASCAL 

wrote  to  Father  Annat,  to  whom  the  last  of  them 
had  been  addressed,  beginning :  "  Be  comforted,  Father, 
those  whom  you  hate  are  afflicted."  But  he  went  no 
further,  and  these  great  letters  came  to  an  end.  We 
may  be  assured  that  the  discontinuance  of  the  letters 
was  not  the  effect  of  any  personal  timidity  on  the 
part  of  Pascal ;  but  he  may  have  thought  it  undesir- 
able further  to  provoke  the  enemies  of  Port  Royal,  or 
even  to  hinder  a  movement  which  seemed  to  promise 
better  for  the  Jansenists. 

A  Latin  translation  of  the  Provincial  Letters,  made 
by  Nicole,  and  published  in  the  next  year,  1658,  made 
them  known  throughout  the  continent  of  Europe ;  and 
by  increasing  the  circle  of  their  readers,  diffused  the 
fame  of  the  writer  and  the  extent  of  their  influence. 
The  condemnation  of  the  writer  by  Rome,  by  the 
French  bishops,  and  by  the  Sorbonne,  had  effect  given 
to  it  by  the  action  of  the  State.  A  decree  of  the 
Council,  23rd  September  1660,  ordained  that  the  book 
entitled  Ludovici  Montaltii  Litterce  Provinciates, 
should  be  torn  and  burnt  by  the  public  executioners. 
As  we  have  seen,  Pascal  was  moved  by  none  of  these 
things,  and  declared  that,  so  far  from  repenting  of 
what  he  had  done,  if  he  had  to  do  it  again,  he  would 
make  it  stronger.  With  regard  to  the  papal  censure, 
he  said :  "  If  my  letters  are  condemned  at  Rome,  that 
which  I  condemn  in  them  is  condemned  in  heaven  " ; 
adding,  "  Ad  tuum,  Domine  Jesu,  tribunal  appello" 

Much  has  been  written  on  the  strength,  the  keenness, 
the  brilliancy  of  these  mighty  letters;  and  one  may 
well  hesitate  to  attempt  anything  new.  Several  testi- 
monies have  already  been  quoted;  and  a  few  words 
more  may  be  borrowed  from  Vinet,  a  great  thinker 


THE  PROVINCIAL  LETTERS          137 

and  writer,  and  one  who  was  intimately  and  profoundly 
acquainted  with  the  literature  of  France.  All  the 
beauties  of  Pascal's  style,  he  says,  are  intellectual  or 
moral.  His  masculine  diction  suggests  the  idea  rather 
of  steel  strongly  tempered  and  perfectly  polished  than 
of  gold  with  splendid  reflections.  With  Pascal  the 
force  of  his  style,  always  measured  and  natural,  is  so 
great  that  it  hardly  allows  us  to  regret  the  partial 
loss  of  brilliancy.  But  never  was  there  less  misuse, 
nor  even  less  use  of  a  figurative  style.  The  honour 
has  been  given  to  the  Provincials,  by  Voltaire  and 
others,  of  having  fixed  the  French  language.  If  this 
honour  does  not  belong  entirely  to  Pascal,  if  Corneille 
and  Balzac  may  claim  a  part  of  it,  that  of  Pascal  is 
certainly  the  greatest.  Pascal  was  the  first  to  be  at 
once  pure  and  popular  in  prose.  Balzac  had  been  less 
popular,  and  Corneille,  we  should  say,  less  pure.  The 
decisive  moment  in  the  history  of  the  language  is 
certainly  the  moment  of  the  Provincials.  To  fix  a 
language,  be  it  remembered,  is  not  to  arrest  its  de- 
velopment or  limit  its  acquisitions;  it  is  to  reject 
finally  that  which  it  was  hesitating  to  reject,  and  to 
sanction  with  authority  all  the  rest.  Many  expressions 
which  were  still  made  use  of  were  found  condemned 
without  hope  of  return  by  the  contempt  which  Pascal 
poured  upon  them ;  others,  whose  destiny  was  uncertain, 
he  has,  in  the  words  of  Madame  de  Sevigne,  "  conse- 
crated to  immortality."  Very  few  of  the  words  which 
he  made  use  of  have  gone  out  of  use.  Scarcely  three 
or  four  could  be  quoted.  As  regards  the  position  of 
the  Little  Letters  among  the  classic  works  of  France, 
"nothing  has  effaced  the  Provincials."  Between 
antiquity  and  the  present  moment  this  book  remains 


138  PASCAL 

unique  and,  like  itself,  alone.  Pascal  is  the  incarnation 
of  Polemic.  Other  writers  may  excel  him  in  particular 
qualities ;  but  "  it  is  not  to  them,  it  is  to  Pascal,  and 
this  for  reasons  entirely  literary,  that  I  will  first  send 
the  young  minds  who  wish  to  learn  at  once  the 
difficult  art  of  discussing  and  the  no  less  difficult  art 
of  writing." 


CHAPTEK   VI 

LATER  YEARS 

FOR  a  moment  we  must  go  back  to  an  event  of  some 
importance,  which  has  already  been  referred  to  as 
having  taken  place  during  the  publication  of  the  Pro- 
vincial Letters.  It  was  on  the  day  of  the  publication 
of  the  fifth  letter,  20th  April  1656,  that  the  Solitaries 
of  Port  Royal,  in  consequence  of  the  condemnation  of 
Arnauld,  were  obliged  to  disperse.  An  event  had 
occurred  just  after  the  issuing  of  the  fourth  letter 
which,  it  was  vainly  hoped,  might  engender  a  better 
feeling  toward  the  persecuted  Society.  This  was  the 
"  Miracle  "  of  the  Holy  Thorn. 

Without  giving  any  opinion  as  to  the  explanation 
or  significance  of  the  phenomena,  we  find  the  story  of 
sufficient  interest  to  set  forth  the  details  as  they  are 
furnished  on  substantial  evidence.  The  healing  took 
place  on  Pascal's  niece,  Marguerite,  the  daughter  of 
Madame  Perier  by  whom  Pascal's  life  was  written. 
She,  with  her  elder  sister,  was  placed  by  their  mother 
at  Port  Royal,  in  1653,  for  the  sake  of  her  education. 
For  three  years  and  a  half  this  child  was  afflicted 
with  a  fistula  lachrymalis,  a  disease  in  the  corner  of 
the  left  eye  which  was  believed  to  be  incurable.  This 
perforation  through  which  the  tears  poured  was  large 

139 


140  PASCAL 

externally,  and  had  affected  the  parts  within,  so  that 
the  bones  of  the  nose  and  the  palate  became  diseased, 
and  the  discharge  from  the  wound  became  offensive,  so 
that  she  had  to  be  separated  from  the  other  children. 
Every  effort  was  made  to  obtain  relief  for  the 
sufferer.  All  the  most  famous  specialists  were  con- 
sulted, but  in  vain.  It  was  at  this  time  that  the  blow 
was  about  to  fall  upon  the  Society  at  Port  Royal. 
The  king  had  been  made  to  believe  that  these  pious 
and  deserted  women  were  the  supporters  of  heresy, 
and  that  Heaven  might  be  supposed  to  smile  on  those 
who  rooted  out  them  and  their  errors.  They  heard 
that  things  had  come  to  such  a  pass  that  a  royal 
council  was  about  to  be  held,  in  order  to  determine  on 
the  dispersion  of  the  nuns ;  and  even  that  the  list  of 
their  names  had  been  made  out,  and  the  place  of  their 
banishment  determined  upon.  This  intelligence  was 
received  on  the  20th  day  of  March  1656. 

The  Mere  des  Anges,  aunt  of  Nicole,  the  translator 
of  the  Provincials,  was  then  abbess,  and  she  at  once 
gave  herself  up  to  earnest  prayer  on  behalf  of  the 
threatened  community.  It  was  reported  to  her  that 
among  other  relics  collected  by  a  saintly  priest,  there 
was  a  thorn  from  the  crown  of  the  crucified  Saviour 
that  would  be  brought  to  the  convent.  The  abbess 
considered  that  they  were  in  no  condition  to  receive 
such  a  gift,  and  only  on  persuasion  gave  her  consent 
that  it  should  be  brought  to  the  convent.  These  details 
are  recorded  and  remembered,  that  it  may  be  seen 
that  there  was  no  enthusiastic  reception  given  to  the 
relic.  It  was  brought  into  the  convent  24th  March 
1656. 

The  abbess  had  remained  in  prayer  night  and  day. 


LATER  YEARS  141 

The  nuns  had  placed  the  thorn  on  an  altar  in  the 
choir;  and,  after  vespers,  devotions  were  used  suited 
to  the  crown  of  thorns,  after  which  they  all  kissed  the 
holy  thorn.  As  Marguerite  Perier  approached,  the 
mistress  of  the  novices,  noting  her  sad  condition, 
asked  her  to  recommend  herself  to  God,  and  to  touch 
her  eye  with  the  holy  thorn.  Apparently  little  was 
thought  of  what  had  taken  place,  until  in  the  evening 
Marguerite  Perier  was  heard  to  say  to  one  of  her 
sisters :  "  I  have  no  longer  anything  the  matter  with 
me,  the  holy  thorn  has  cured  me."  The  sisters  at 
first  kept  silence  with  wonder  at  what  had  happened, 
and  sent  for  M.  Dalence,  the  surgeon  who  had  treated 
the  girl  and  pronounced  her  malady  incurable ;  and  who, 
on  coming  to  see  her,  repeated  the  opinion  he  had  given 
before.  "  Look  again,"  they  said ;  and  when  they  had 
told  him  all  that  had  happened,  he  exclaimed  :  "  There 
never  was  a  miracle,  if  this  is  not  one."  On  his 
report  several  physicians  and  surgeons  came  to  see  the 
girl,  and  attested  the  "  miracle." 

Notwithstanding  this  attestation  and  the  widespread 
belief  in  the  reality  of  the  miracle,  many  doubted  and 
still  doubt  as  to  the  true  nature  of  the  incident ;  and, 
as  M.  Sainte  Beuve  remarks,  whether  we  like  it  or  not, 
we  must  do  our  best  to  understand  it.  It  is  a  great 
disappointment,  he  says,  to  find,  over  against  the  Pro- 
vincials, the  miracle  of  the  holy  thorn ;  and  he  adds : 
"  The  Jansenists  saw  in  it  the  triumph  of  their  cause ;  I 
see  in  it,  above  all,  the  humiliation  of  the  human  spirit." 

By  those,  then,  who  dispute  the  miraculous  character 
of  that  which  happened  to  Marguerite  Perier,  it  is  said 
that  she  had  not  exactly  a  fistula,  but  a  lachrymal 
tumour  caused  by  the  obstruction  of  the  channel  of 


142  PASCAL 

tears.  When  this  tumour  was  pressed,  a  portion  of 
its  contents  was  discharged  through  the  lower  orifice 
of  the  channel.  There  is  no  proof,  it  is  said,  that  the 
bone  was  carious;  the  natural  conduit  was  stopped 
by  an  imperfect  obstacle,  and  this  obstacle  gave  way 
in  part  when  it  was  pressed.  So,  it  is  said,  when  the 
sister  applied  the  relic  to  the  tumour  she  exercised  a 
sufficient  pressure  to  bring  about  the  emptying  of  the 
tumour,  so  that  the  explanation  of  the  relief  afforded 
is  quite  natural.  The  girl  found  herself  relieved,  and 
told  her  companions.  The  surgeon  did  not  see  her 
until  the  31st  of  March,  that  is,  seven  days  after  the 
time  of  the  miracle,  and  he  then  found  everything 
in  good  condition.  The  cause  of  the  suffering  being 
removed,  the  effects  speedily  disappeared,  especially  in 
the  case  of  a  child.  The  surgeon  had  seen  her  about  two 
months  before  the  24th,  and  he  saw  her  seven  days  after. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the  fame  of  the 
miracle  came  to  be  more  and  more  spread  abroad. 
When  the  physicians,  in  their  certificate  of  14th  April, 
declared  that  such  a  healing  transcended  the  ordinary 
powers  of  nature,  the  public  voice  speedily  declared 
on  the  same  side.  M.  du  Saussai,  Vicar  -  General  of 
Paris,  who  began  his  visitation  of  the  monastery  with 
doubts  as  to  the  propriety  of  sanctioning  its  con- 
tinuance, laid  them  aside  in  presence  of  this  healing 
of  which  he  made  record.  On  22nd  October  1656, 
M.  de  Hodencq,  another  Vicar- General,  in  the  name  of 
Cardinal  de  Retz  gave  a  solemn  sentence  of  approval 
to  the  miracle,  and  caused  a  Te  Deum  to  be  sung ;  and, 
above  all,  other  miracles  and  healings  by  the  holy 
thorn  followed  in  quick  succession  to  the  number  of 
forty,  which  afterwards  rose  to  the  number  of  eighty. 


LATER  YEARS  143 

Even  the  Jesuits  did  not  venture  to  deny  the  reality 
of  the  miracle,  although  they  knew  it  would  be  used 
against  themselves,  so  that  they  were  reduced  to  main- 
taining that  it  was  the  work  of  the  devil.  And  even 
a  pope  gave  his  sanction ;  for  Benedict  XIIL,  in  1728, 
allowed  it  to  be  adduced  in  proof  that  miracles  have 
not  ceased  in  the  Church. 

The  "  miracle  "  touched  Pascal  very  closely.  It  not 
only  happened  on  a  member  of  his  own  family,  but 
within  a  community  in  which  he  was  deeply  interested, 
and  whose  very  existence  was  then  threatened.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  he  believed  in  the  reality  of  the 
miracle,  and  regarded  it  as  a  divine  interposition  on 
behalf  of  Port  Royal  and  the  truth  for  which  he  was 
contending  in  his  letters.  Such  was  the  opinion  of 
his  coadjutors  in  general.  M.  de  Saci,  we  are  in- 
formed, was  accustomed  to  say  to  his  friends  that,  if 
one  could  doubt  of  the  justification  of  Port  Royal  by 
this  miracle  and  by  the  others  which  followed,  there 
would  be  no  truth  in  the  Church  which  might  not  be 
obscured ;  and  if  these  miracles  were  explained  away, 
all  those  which  had  been  worked  by  God  or  by  His 
servants  could  easily  be  evaded  by  the  same  reasons. 
But  not  the  members  of  Port  Royal  only,  but  the 
Queen  and  Cardinal  de  Retz,  the  archbishop  of  Paris, 
became  convinced  of  the  divine  protection  being  ex- 
tended to  the  Society,  and  were  anxious  to  take  the 
nuns  under  their  protection.  Whatever  may  be  our 
judgment  on  this  strange  incident,  it  would  at  least 
seem  probable  that  it  stirred  up  Pascal  to  undertake 
that  great  work  in  defence  of  revealed  religion  which 
occupied  the  last  years  of  his  life,  and  of  which  he 
has  left  us  such  precious  fragments. 


144  PASCAL 

Marguerite  Perier,  the  healing  of  whom  was  re- 
garded as  miraculous,  lived  with  her  family  for  many 
years  at  Clermont,  and  was  the  last  to  depart.  She 
died  in  April  1733,  at  the  age  of  eighty -seven  years; 
and  it  was  not  unnatural  that  her  friends,  who  be- 
lieved in  the  miracle  which  restored  her  to  health, 
should  have  thought  her  life  in  a  manner  miraculous, 
and  that  she  was  preserved  to  the  year  in  which  she 
died  in  order  to  see  the  reputed  miracles  of  the  Abbe 
Paris. 

The  effect  of  the  belief  in  the  miracle  was,  for  a 
time  at  least,  to  free  Port  Royal  from  persecution. 
The  Solitaries  gradually  came  back,  and  the  valley 
began  to  flourish  as  before.  Many  joined  the  nuns, 
whilst  many  others  came  to  be  with  them  for  a  season 
for  the  sake  of  retirement  and  devotion.  Including 
the  nuns  and  the  Solitaries,  there  were  two  hundred  and 
fifty  members  of  the  two  societies,  whilst  the  number 
under  their  direction  amounted  to  several  hundreds. 

Pascal's  health,  never  robust,  broke  down  soon  after 
the  conclusion  of  the  Provincial  Letters,  and  his 
malady  took  the  form  of  toothache,  which  deprived 
him  almost  entirely  of  sleep.  In  order  to  obtain  relief 
from  the  pain  he  endured,  he  set  to  work  to  reconsider 
some  problems  in  geometry  which  had  formerly 
occupied  his  attention,  and  this  seems  to  have  had 
the  desired  effect.  "However,"  says  Madame  Perier, 
"his  infirmities  continuing,  without  giving  him  a 
moment  of  relaxation,  he  was  rendered  unable  to  con- 
tinue his  work  or  to  see  any  visitor.  But  if  he  was 
thus  hindered  from  serving  the  public  or  individuals, 
his  infirmities  were  not  useless  to  himself,  and  he 
endured  them  with  so  much  peacefulness  and  patience 


LATER  YEARS  145 

that  we  may  well  believe  that  God  willed  thus  to 
render  him  such  as  He  willed  that  he  should  be  in 
order  to  appear  before  Him;  for,  during  this  long 
illness,  he  never  turned  from  his  purpose,  having 
always  in  his  mind  these  two  great  maxims,  to  re- 
nounce all  pleasure  and  all  superfluity.  He  practised 
them  in  his  worst  sickness  with  a  constant  vigilance 
over  his  senses,  absolutely  refusing  to  them  all  that 
was  agreeable  to  them ;  and  when  necessity  con- 
strained him  to  do  anything  which  could  give  him 
any  satisfaction,  he  had  a  marvellous  readiness  in  turn- 
ing his  mind  away  so  that  it  should  take  no  part  in  it. 
For  example,  his  continued  maladies  obliging  him  to 
nourish  himself  delicately,  he  took  the  greatest  care 
not  to  taste  what  he  ate.  .  .  .  He  never  said  of  any- 
thing, That  is  good;  and  when  we  served  him  with 
anything  new,  in  accordance  with  the  seasons,  if  we 
asked  him,  after  the  repast,  if  he  had  found  it  good,  he 
simply  said :  '  You  should  have  warned  me  of  this 
before ;  and  I  assure  you  that  I  did  not  notice  it.'  And 
when  it  happened  that  anyone  spoke  of  the  pleasant- 
ness of  any  food  in  his  presence,  he  could  not  endure 
it.  He  called  it  being  sensual,  even  if  it  was  only  in 
reference  to  common  things ;  since,  he  said,  it  was  a 
way  of  gratifying  the  taste,  which  was  always  bad." 
We  are  under  the  impression  that,  among  ourselves, 
neither  religion  nor  science  would  make  such  demands 
upon  the  weakness  of  human  flesh;  but  that  is  not 
here  the  question.  In  his  asceticism  and  rigorism 
Pascal  was  not  merely  sincere,  he  was  obeying  the 
dictates  of  sanctified  reason  and  conscience,  as  he  under- 
stood their  voice ;  and  herein  he  was  following  in  the 
footsteps  of  many  holy  men. 
10 


146  PASCAL 

On  another  subject  his  sister  remarks :  "  He  had  so 
great  a  love  of  poverty,  that  it  was  always  present  to 
him ;  so  that  when  he  wished  to  undertake  anything, 
or  anyone  asked  him  for  advice,  the  first  thought  that 
came  into  his  mind  was  to  see  if  poverty  could  be 
practised.  One  of  the  things  on  which  he  examined 
himself  the  most,  was  the  thought  of  wishing  to  excel 
in  everything ;  so  also  to  make  use  of  the  best  workmen 
in  all  things,  and  the  like.  He  could  not  endure  that 
people  should  carefully  seek  for  all  conveniences  of 
life  .  .  .  and  he  was  accustomed  to  say  that  there  was 
nothing  so  apt  to  extinguish  the  spirit  of  poverty  as 
this  careful  seeking  for  conveniences  .  .  .  and  in  regard 
to  workpeople,  he  said  we  should  always  choose  the 
poorest  and  the  best,  and  not  that  kind  of  excellence 
which  is  never  necessary,  and  which  could  never  be 
useful.  He  was  wont  to  cry  out :  '  If  my  heart  were  as 
poor  as  my  spirit,  I  should  be  quite  happy ;  for  I  am 
marvellously  persuaded  that  poverty  is  a  great  aid  to 
one's  salvation/  " 

Madame  Perier  goes  on:  "This  love  which  he  had 
for  poverty  led  him  to  love  the  poor  with  so  much 
tenderness,  that  he  was  never  able  to  refuse  alms, 
although  he  gave  out  of  his  necessity,  having  but  little 
goods,  and  being  obliged  to  expend  in  excess  of  his 
income  by  reason  of  his  infirmities.  But  when  this 
was  represented  to  him  on  his  giving  any  considerable 
amount  in  alms,  he  was  displeased,  and  said :  '  I  have 
noticed  one  thing,  that,  however  poor  a  man  may  be, 
he  always  leaves  something  when  he  dies.'  Thus  he 
shut  the  mouths  of  objectors ;  and  he  sometimes  gave 
away  so  much  that  he  had  to  borrow  at  interest  of  his 
banker  so  as  not  to  trouble  his  friends." 


LATER  YEARS  147 

In  the  worst  of  his  sufferings  he  was  wont  to  say  to 
his  friends  who  were  distressed  for  him :  "  Do  not  pity 
me.  Sickness  is  the  natural  condition  of  Christians. 
In  sickness  we  are  as  we  ought  always  to  be — in  the 
suffering  of  pains,  in  the  privation  of  goods  and  of  all 
the  pleasures  of  the  senses,  exempt  from  all  the  passions 
which  work  in  us  during  the  whole  course  of  our  life, 
without  ambition,  without  avarice,  in  the  continual 
expectation  of  death.  Is  it  not  in  this  manner  that 
Christians  should  pass  their  life?  And  is  it  not  a 
great  happiness  when  one  finds  himself  by  necessity 
in  the  state  in  which  he  is  obliged  to  be,  and  when  one 
has  nothing  else  to  do  but  to  submit  himself  humbly 
and  patiently  ? " 

That  the  spirit  of  Pascal  pervaded  the  community 
may  be  seen  from  some  utterances  of  the  Mere 
Angelique.  "Poverty,"  she  says,  "consists  in  a  dis- 
position of  heart  to  suffer  the  want  of  things  necessary, 
even  to  die  naked,  like  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  of  such  that 
we  can  truly  say,  '  Blessed  are  the  dead  that  die  in 
the  Lord/  For,  to  die  of  poverty  is  to  die  with  Jesus 
Christ  and  in  Jesus  Christ  .  .  .  we  should  give  thanks 
to  God,  if  we  were  reduced  to  have  only  bread  and 
water.  .  .  .  Poverty,  when  it  is  well  practised,  is  only 
a  small  austerity,  not  only  for  the  body,  but  also  for  the 
mind ;  because  there  is  nothing  which  humbles  more." 

Pascal  was  very  strong  in  his  protests  against  what 
he  called  attachment  to  created  things,  by  which  he 
meant  something  like  the  opposite  of  renunciation. 
"  It  is  well,"  he  says,  "  to  have  wife,  children,  goods,  and, 
above  all,  health,  when  we  can ;  but  not  so  as  to  attach 
ourselves  to  them  in  such  a  manner  that  our  happiness 
depends  upon  them." 


148  PASCAL 

The  devotion  of  Pascal  to  the  interests  of  his  fellow- 
men  was  profound  and  extensive ;  and  various  instances 
are  given  by  his  sister.  One  of  these  is  very  remark- 
able. "About  three  months  before  his  death  there 
happened  an  incident  which  gave  a  very  sensible  proof 
of  his  vigilance  against  any  loss  of  purity,  and  which, 
at  the  same  time,  illustrates  the  greatness  of  his  charity. 
As  he  was  returning  one  day  from  Mass  at  St.  Sulpice, 
there  came  to  him  a  young  girl  about  fifteen  years  of 
age,  very  beautiful,  asking  for  alms.  He  was  touched 
at  seeing  the  child  exposed  to  palpable  danger,  and 
asked  her  who  she  was,  and  how  it  was  that  it  became 
necessary  for  her  to  ask  for  alms ;  and  finding  out  that 
she  came  from  the  country,  that  her  father  was 
dead,  and  that  her  mother  had  fallen  sick, — she  had 
been  conveyed  to  the  H6tel  Dieu  on  that  day, — Pascal 
believed  that  God  had  sent  her  to  him  as  soon  as  she 
had  been  in  need,  so  that  from  that  hour  he  conveyed 
her  to  the  seminary,  where  he  put  her  into  the  hands 
of  a  good  priest  to  whom  he  gave  some  money,  and 
asked  him  to  take  care  of  her,  and  to  place  her  in  some 
position  in  which  she  could  receive  guidance  on  ac- 
count of  her  youth,  and  where  she  would  personally 
be  in  safety.  In  order  to  add  to  her  comfort,  he  told 
her  that  he  would  send  next  day  a  woman  to  buy  her 
some  clothes,  and  all  that  should  be  necessary  for  her, 
to  put  her  in  a  position  to  be  able  to  serve  a  mistress. 
The  next  day  he  sent  her  a  woman,  who  worked  so 
well  with  this  good  priest  that,  after  having  her 
dressed,  they  got  her  into  a  good  situation.  And  this 
ecclesiastic  having  asked  of  the  woman  the  name  of 
the  person  who  was  doing  this  charity,  she  told  him  that 
she  had  not  been  commissioned  to  give  this  informa- 


LATER  YEARS  149 

tion,  but  that  she  was  to  come  and  see  him  from  time 
to  time  in  order  to  make  provision,  with  him,  for  the 
wants  of  the  girl ;  and  he  besought  her  to  obtain  from 
him  permission  to  communicate  his  name,  saying:  'I 
promise  you  that  I  will  never  speak  of  it  during  his 
life ;  but  if  God  should  permit  him  to  die  before  me,  I 
should  have  the  consolation  of  making  public  this 
action,  for  I  find  it  so  admirable  that  I  cannot  allow  it 
to  remain  in  oblivion.'  Thus,  by  this  single  encounter 
this  good  ecclesiastic,  without  knowing  Pascal,  judged 
how  much  charity  and  love  he  had  for  purity.  He 
had  an  extreme  tenderness  for  us;  but  this  affection 
did  not  amount  to  attachment.  He  gave  a  very 
striking  proof  of  it  at  the  death  of  my  sister,  which 
preceded  his  by  ten  months.  When  he  received  this 
intelligence,  he  said  only :  '  May  God  give  us  grace  to 
die  as  well !'  and  ever  after  he  kept  himself  in  wonder- 
ful submission  to  the  dispositions  of  the  providence  of 
God,  without  making  reflection  except  on  the  great 
graces  which  God  had  conferred  upon  my  sister  during 
her  life,  and  on  the  circumstances  of  the  time  of  her 
death,  which  made  him  say  incessantly :  '  Blessed  are 
they  who  die,  provided  they  die  in  the  Lord ! '  When 
he  saw  me  in  continual  affliction  for  this  loss,  which 
I  felt  so  deeply,  he  was  distressed,  and  said  that  this 
was  not  well,  and  that  we  ought  not  to  have  these 
feelings  for  the  death  of  the  just;  and  that,  on  the 
contrary,  we  should  praise  God  for  having  so  abund- 
antly rewarded  her  for  the  slight  services  which  she 
had  rendered  to  Him." 

One  of  the  great  trials  of  the  Pascals  and  of  Port 
Royal  was  the  mandate  of  the  bishops  requiring  them 
to  sign  a  formulary  in  condemnation  of  Jansenius. 


150  PASCAL 

They  had  been  willing  to  condemn  the  five  propositions 
condemned  by  the  Sorbonne  and  the  Pope,  so  long  as 
they  might  have  in  reserve  the  opinion  that  the  pro- 
positions did  not  embody  the  teaching  of  Jansenius. 
But  now  they  were  required  to  go  further,  and  condemn 
the  doctrines  of  the  propositions  as  being  those  of 
Jansenius.  The  doctors  and  confessors  of  Port  Royal 
having  considered  the  demand,  decided  that  with  some 
modifications  the  nuns  might  sign  the  formulary. 
By  concession  on  the  part  of  some  of  the  members  of 
Port  Royal,  the  nuns  were  induced  to  sign,  as  had  been 
done  by  the  house  in  Paris.  Jacqueline  de  Sainte 
Euphe"mie,  Pascal's  sister,  was  induced  to  do  so,  and 
died  of  a  broken  heart  three  months  afterwards.  Pascal 
declared  his  inability  to  accept  this  compromise.  He 
had  gone  as  far  as  he  could  in  rejecting  the  proposi- 
tions :  he  would  not  condemn  Jansenius  and  Augustine, 
for  in  his  mind  they  were  inseparable.  Arnauld,  Nicole, 
and  others  were  in  favour  of  concession;  but  Pascal 
held  out.  He  saw  that  his  friends  were  yielding  out  of 
a  desire  to  preserve  Port  Royal.  "  It  is  our  business,"  he 
said, "  to  obey  God,  and  not  to  calculate  the  consequences 
of  our  obedience;  Port  Royal  is  afraid:  it  is  a  bad 
policy."  So  powerfully  was  he  affected  by  the  dis- 
cussion, so  deeply  was  he  distressed  by  what  he 
regarded  as  the  surrender  of  the  truth  by  his  friends, 
that  he  fainted  away,  losing  speech  and  consciousness. 
After  being  restored,  and  when  the  others  had  retired, 
leaving  only  his  most  intimate  friends,  the  Due  de 
Roannez  and  the  members  of  his  own  family,  Madame 
Perier  asked  him  to  explain  the  effect  produced 
upon  him.  He  replied :  "  When  I  saw  all  these 
persons  whom  I  regarded  as  those  to  whom  God  had 


LATER  YEARS  151 

made  known  the  truth,  and  who  ought  to  be  its 
defenders, — when  I  saw  them  shaken  and  surrendering 
the  truth,  I  confess  to  you  that  I  was  seized  with 
such  grief  that  I  could  not  endure  it,  but  succumbed 
to  it." 

We  cannot  but  agree  with  the  language  of  Sainte 
Beuve:  "What  moral  grandeur!  and  how  happy  are 
those  who  can  thus  suffer  for  the  integrity  of  conscience, 
even  to  fainting,  even  to  dying  !  Sacred  agony !  Can 
one  conceive  anything  more  admirable  than  this  tender- 
ness for  the  truth,  so  delicate  and  so  vulnerable,  at 
the  heart  of  intelligences  so  firm  and  so  invincible  ? 
The  sister  dies  of  it,  the  brother  falls  to  the  ground 
without  consciousness.  Fontenelle,  Goethe,  and  M.  de 
Talleyrand  have  not  these  fainting  fits." 

Pascal  was  the  last  representative  of  the  spirit  of 
St.  Cyran,  and  even  he  had  not  all  at  once  fully 
attained  to  it.  It  was  his  sister  who  from  the  time  of 
her  confession  had  understood  it  and  never  departed 
from  it.  It  has  been  truly  said  that,  in  relation  to  her 
brother,  she  explains  him,  completes  him,  and  perhaps 
in  some  respects  surpasses  him. 

About  two  months  before  his  death  Pascal's  suffer- 
ings increased.  On  29th  June  1662  he  left  his  house 
for  that  of  his  sister,  Madame  Perier,  and  this  for  a 
reason  which  illustrates  the  most  attractive  side  of 
his  character.  He  had  got  into  his  house  a  family, 
husband,  wife,  and  children ;  and  one  of  the  sons  took 
smallpox,  and  he  was  afraid  lest  Madame  Pe"rier  who 
came  to  see  him  every  day,  might  carry  away  the 
disease  to  her  own  children ;  and  instead  of  removing 
the  sick  boy,  he,  though  suffering  himself,  found  it  more 
simple  to  remove  himself.  His  old  friends  did  not 


i$2  PASCAL 

forget  him.  Arnauld,  who  was  then  under  the  necessity 
of  concealing  himself,  came  several  times  incognito  to 
visit  him ;  and  so  did  Nicole.  So  did  the  cure"  of  St. 
fitienne. 

"He  had  a  great  desire,"  says  Madame  Perier,  "to 
receive  the  communion;  but  his  physicians  were 
opposed  to  it,  saying  that  he  could  not  receive  it 
fasting.  .  .  .  He  then  said :  '  Since  this  grace  cannot  be 
granted  to  me,  I  should  wish  to  substitute  some  good 
work ;  and  not  being  able  to  communicate  in  the  head, 
I  should  like  much  to  do  so  in  the  members ;  and  for 
that  purpose  I  have  thought  to  have  here  a  poor  sick 
man  to  whom  the  same  services  may  be  rendered  as  to 
me,  having  some  one  to  watch  over  him,  and,  in  short, 
making  no  difference  between  him  and  me,  in  order 
that  I  may  have  the  consolation  of  knowing  that  there 
is  a  poor  man  as  well  treated  as  myself.  .  .  .  For  when 
I  think  that  at  the  same  time  that  I  am  so  well  off, 
there  is  an  infinite  number  of  poor  persons  who  are 
in  worse  health  than  I  am,  and  who  are  destitute  of 
the  things  which  are  most  necessary,  that  gives  me  a 
pain  which  I  cannot  endure;  and  so  I  entreat  you 
to  ask  the  cure  to  find  a  sick  man  whom  I  may 
help/ 

"  I  sent  to  the  cure  at  once,  who  informed  me  that 
there  was  no  one  in  a  condition  to  be  removed ;  but 
that  he  could  give  him,  as  soon  as  he  was  cured,  a 
means  of  exercising  such  charity,  by  taking  charge  of 
an  old  man  of  whom  he  might  take  care  during  the 
rest  of  his  life ;  for  the  cure  at  that  time  had  no  doubt 
that  he  would  recover. 

"  As  he  saw  that  he  could  not  have  a  poor  man  in 
his  house  with  him,  he  besought  me  to  do  him  this 


LATER  YEARS  153 

grace,  to  have  him  conveyed  to  the  Incurables,  because 
he  had  a  great  desire  to  die  in  the  company  of  the 
poor.  I  told  him  that  the  physicians  did  not  find  it 
suitable  to  transport  him  in  the  state  he  was  then  in, 
which  distressed  him  much ;  and  he  made  me  promise 
that,  if  he  had  a  little  intermission,  I  would  give  him 
this  satisfaction." 

As  he  grew  worse,  in  spite  of  the  assurances  of  the 
physicians  that  there  was  no  danger,  he  saw  the 
nearness  of  the  end,  and  "  he  prayed  me,"  says  Madame 
Pe'rier,  "  to  call  in  an  ecclesiastic  to  pass  the  night  near 
him ;  and  I  found  him  so  ill  that  I  gave  orders,  without 
saying  anything  about  it,  to  bring  tapers  and  all  that 
was  necessary  for  communion  on  the  morrow. 

"  The  preparations  were  not  useless,  but  they  were 
called  into  requisition  sooner  than  we  had  thought ;  for 
about  midnight  he  was  taken  with  a  convulsion  so 
violent,  that  when  it  passed  we  were  afraid  that  he 
was  dead,  and  we  had  this  great  disappointment,  with 
all  the  others,  to  see  him  die  without  the  sacrament, 
after  having  asked  for  it  so  often  and  with  so  much 
eagerness.  But  God,  who  would  reward  a  desire  so 
fervent  and  so  just,  suspended,  as  by  a  miracle,  these 
convulsions  and  restored  to  him  his  judgment  quite 
sound  as  in  perfect  health ;  so  that  the  cure,  when 
he  entered  his  chamber  with  the  holy  sacrament, 
cried  to  him,  '  Here  is  He  whom  you  have  so  greatly 
desired.' 

"  These  words  awoke  him ;  and  as  the  cure  approached 
to  give  him  the  communion,  he  made  an  effort  and 
half  raised  himself  to  receive  it  with  greater  respect. 
And  the  cure  having  asked  him,  according  to  custom, 
concerning  the  principal  mysteries  of  the  faith,  he 


154  PASCAL 

answered  distinctly:  'Yes  sir,  I  believe  all  that  with 
all  my  heart.'  He  then  received  the  holy  Viaticum 
and  extreme  unction  with  sentiments  so  tender  that 
he  shed  tears.  He  responded  to  everything,  thanked 
the  cure",  and  when  he  blessed  him  with  the  sacred 
Ciborium,  he  said, '  May  God  never  forsake  me  !' — almost 
his  last  words ;  for  a  moment  after,  having  offered  his 
thanksgiving,  his  convulsions  returned  and  did  not 
leave  him  again,  lasting  on  to  his  death,  which  happened 
twenty-four  hours  afterwards,  on  the  29th  of  August 
1662,  at  one  o'clock  in  the  morning,  he  being  thirty- 
nine  years  and  two  months  old.  He  was  buried  in 
the  church  of  St.  fitienne  du  Mont  in  Paris." 

Of  Pascal's  zeal  for  the  truth  and  fidelity  to  his 
convictions  we  have  had  evidence  sufficient;  and  his 
sister  declares  that  he  had  so  great  zeal  for  the  glory 
of  God  that  he  could  not  endure  that  it  should  be 
violated  in  the  least  particular.  No  less  striking  was 
his  gentleness  of  disposition  and  his  readiness  to  forgive 
offences  against  himself ;  indeed  he  seemed  to  forget 
such  things  so  entirely  that  it  was  with  difficulty  they 
were  recalled  to  his  mind.  And  when  anyone  expressed 
admiration  of  this  conduct,  he  would  say :  "  Do  not  be 
surprised ;  it  is  not  by  virtue,  it  is  by  mere  f orgetf ulness ; 
I  had  no  recollection  of  it."  It  was,  however,  clear  that 
offences  against  himself  made  little  impression  upon 
him,  since  he  forgot  them  so  easily;  for  he  had  a 
memory  so  retentive  that  he  often  used  to  say  that  he 
had  never  forgotten  anything  of  the  things  which  he 
had  wished  to  retain. 

One  of  the  most  conspicuous  characteristics  of  this 
great  man  was  his  simplicity.  "  This  great  simplicity 
appeared,"  says  Mme.  Perier,  "  when  he  spoke  of  God  or 


LATER  YEARS  155 

of  himself ;  so  that  on  the  evening  before  his  death,  an 
ecclesiastic  [M.  de  Sainte  Marthe  of  Port  Royal],  a  man 
of  great  knowledge  and  of  great  virtue,  having  come 
to  see  him,  as  he  had  wished,  and  having  remained 
an  hour  with  him,  departed  so  greatly  edified  that  he 
said  to  me,  '  Go,  console  yourself ;  if  God  calls  him,  you 
have  great  reason  to  praise  Him  for  the  graces  He  has 
given  him.  I  had  always  admired  many  great  things 
in  him,  but  I  had  never  remarked  the  great  simplicity 
which  I  have  just  seen.  That  is  incomparable  in  a 
mind  such  as  his.  With  all  my  heart  I  could  wish  to 
be  in  his  place.' 

"  The  cure  of  St.  Etienne,  who  saw  him  throughout 
all  his  sickness,  marked  the  same  thing,  and  said  every 
hour, '  He  is  like  a  child.  He  is  humble,  he  is  sub- 
missive as  an  infant.'  It  was  by  this  same  simplicity 
that  he  gave  his  friends  complete  liberty  to  warn  him 
of  his  defects,  and  he  took  the  advice  that  was  given 
him  without  resistance.  The  extreme  vivacity  of  his 
mind  rendered  him  sometimes  so  impatient  that  it  was 
difficult  to  satisfy  him ;  but  when  he  was  warned,  or 
when  he  perceived  that  he  had  vexed  anyone  by  his 
impatience,  he  made  amends  for  it  immediately  by 
such  gentleness  of  conduct  and  by  so  many  kindnesses, 
that  he  never  in  that  way  lost  the  friendship  of  any- 
one. .  .  . 

"  To  an  ardent  charity  he  joined,  during  his  illness, 
a  patience  so  admirable  that  he  edified  and  surprised 
all  who  were  about  him ;  and  he  said  to  those  who  ex- 
pressed their  regret  at  seeing  him  in  such  a  condition, 
that  he  felt  nothing  of  that  kind,  and  that  he  had  even 
some  apprehensions  connected  with  a  recovery;  and 
when  he  was  asked  the  reason,  he  said, '  It  is  because 


156  PASCAL 

I  know  the  dangers  of  health  and  the  advantages  of 
sickness.'  He  said  again,  on  occasion  of  the  worst  of 
his  pains,  when  others  were  distressed  at  seeing  him 
suffer :  '  Do  not  pity  me,  sickness  is  the  natural  state  of 
Christians.'  He  was  always  the  same,  never  unequal 
to  himself."  It  has  been  said,  and  not  quite  truly,  of  a 
great  writer  of  another  nation,  that  his  heart,  which 
few  knew,  was  as  great  as  his  intellect,  which  all  knew. 
Such  a  saying  would  be  true  of  Pascal.  His  heart  and 
his  will  were  worthy  of  his  intellect.  To  no  son  of 
man  could  higher  testimony  be  given. 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE  THOUGHTS 

FOR  several  years  before  his  death  Pascal  had  medi- 
tated the  composition  of  some  great  work  in  defence 
of  the  Christian  Religion.  But  his  health  grew  worse 
and  worse,  and  during  the  last  year  or  two  of  his 
life,  he  probably  did  little  more  than  now  and  then 
jot  down  a  memorandum  of  some  thought  which  might 
be  used  for  his  purpose.  It  has  been  doubted  by  some 
whether  it  has  not  been  an  advantage  to  possess  these 
last  fruits  of  the  genius  of  Pascal  in  a  fragmentary 
state,  instead  of  having  them  presented  in  a  completely 
organised  form.  It  is  not  merely  that  an  unfinished 
work  has  a  certain  charm  of  its  own,  raising  questions 
which  are  unanswered,  and  speculations  as  to  the 
manner  in  which  the  author  would  have  answered 
them ;  and  no  one  will  deny  that  the  fragments  left 
by  Pascal  have  an  originality,  a  freshness,  an  incisive- 
ness  which  they  might  have  lost  in  part  if  they  had 
received  further  elaboration.  At  least,  such  as  they 
are  we  possess  them,  and  the  concurrent  testimony  of 
the  most  thoughtful  of  the  human  race  has  assigned 
to  them  a  unique  position  among  the  products  of  the 
greatest  minds,  and  has  pronounced  them  to  be  "a 
monument  more  enduring  than  brass."  The  most 
superficial  study  of  these  precious  fragments  will 

157 


158  PASCAL 

justify  the  title  under  which  they  were  put  forth — 
Pensees,  "Thoughts";  and  the  motto  affixed  was  no 
less  happy  than  the  title,  "  Pendent  opera  interrupta." 

There  was  a  double  aim  in  the  mind  of  the  writer : 
first,  to  defend  Port  Royal  against  the  attacks  made 
upon  it  by  the  Jesuits  and  other  adversaries;  and 
secondly  and  chiefly,  to  offer  an  Apologia,  a  defence  of 
the  Christian  religion,  which  had  long  been  a  thought 
very  near  to  the  heart  of  Pascal,  probably  dating  as 
far  back  as  the  period  of  his  second  conversion  in 
1654.  Considering,  however,  the  very  prominent  place 
assigned  to  the  defence  of  miracles  as  evidences  of 
Christianity,  it  has  been  inferred  that  the  principal 
part  of  the  work  was  written  after  the  "  miracle "  of 
the  Holy  Thorn  in  1656. 

Before  considering  more  particularly  the  contents  of 
the  Thoughts  it  may  be  well  to  give  some  account 
of  the  manner  in  which  the  work  was  edited  and  pub- 
lished. As  a  preface  to  the  volume,  Madame  Perier 
drew  up  the  Life  of  Pascal  which  has  usually  been 
prefixed  to  the  various  editions  of  the  work.  This 
Life  seems  to  have  been  written  soon  after  Pascal's 
death;  but  it  was  not  until  1668,  when  Pope  Clement 
ix.,  as  was  supposed,  had  put  an  end  to  the  disputes 
respecting  Jansenism,  and  made  the  "peace  of  the 
Church,"  that  they  undertook  to  put  the  fragments  in 
order. 

The  principal  part  in  this  undertaking  was  assumed 
by  the  Due  de  Roannez,  assisted  by  Arnauld,  Nicole, 
and  others.  It  was  agreed  that  nothing  should  be 
published  that  would  be  likely  to  stir  up  any  of  the 
controversies  between  the  Jansenists  and  Jesuits. 
But  Madame  Pe"rier  distinctly  imposed  the  condition, 


THE  THOUGHTS  159 

that,  whilst  omissions  might  be  made,  no  alterations  or 
additions  should  be  allowed.  The  printing  was  finished 
in  1669,  and  the  publication  took  place  in  1670,  the 
title  of  the  book  being,  Thoughts  of  M.  Pascal  on 
Religion  and  some  other  Subjects,  which  have  been 
found  after  his  Death  avnong  his  Papers.1  Instead 
of  the  Life,  prepared  by  Madame  Perier,  and  published 
in  subsequent  editions,  there  was  prefixed  a  Preface 
written  by  Pascal's  nephew,  fitienne  Perier,  setting 
forth  the  design  of  the  work. 

In  spite  of  the  statement  that  nothing  had  been 
changed  in  the  original  manuscript  or  added  to  it,  a 
great  many  changes  and  additions  were  made,  some- 
times altering  not  merely  the  words,  but  the  meaning. 
M.  Cousin  said  no  more  than  the  truth  when  he 
declared  in  1842,  after  examining  the  original,  that 
there  were  "  examples  of  every  kind  of  alteration — of 
words,  of  phrases,  suppressions,  substitutions,  additions, 
arbitrary  compositions,  and,  what  is  worse,  decomposi- 
tions more  arbitrary  still";  whilst  two  years  later, 
Faugere  asserts  that  "  there  are  not  twenty  successive 
lines  which  do  not  present  some  alteration,  great  or 
small.  As  for  total  omissions  and  partial  suppressions, 
they  are  without  number." 

Many  harsh  words  have  been  spoken  of  these  original 
editors ;  but  M.  Sainte  Beuve  declares  that  they  "  did 
not  do  so  very  badly.  Let  us  imagine,"  he  says,  "  at 
this  date,  of  1668,  our  putting  other  men  in  the  place 
of  our  worthy  friends," — Roannez,  Arnauld,  and  the 
rest, — "  our  forming  another  editing  committee,  and  let 
us  see  whether  the  book  would  have  had  a  chance  of 

1  Pensees  de  M.  Pascal  sur  le  religion  et  sur  quelques  autres  sujets,  qui 
ont  6t6  trouvtes  aprks  sa  mort  parmi  ses  papiers. 


160  PASCAL 

coming  out  of  these  other  hands  in  a  better  condition 
and  more  conformed  to  our  wishes  in  these  days. 
Think  of  substituting  for  them  Bossuet,  La  Rochefou- 
cauld, Fontaine,  and  others,  and  what  a  wonderful 
committee  you  would  have  had !  Let  us  then  take 
things  as  they  were.  Here  is  the  little  volume  in 
12mo — at  its  head  the  preface  of  the  P^rier  family. 
Port  Royal  was  nowhere  mentioned,  and  in  referring 
to  the  locality  of  the  conversion  of  Pascal,  it  is  said 
only  that  he  had  for  some  time  retired  into  the 
country."  However,  the  time  was  favourable.  The 
publication  lent  a  momentary  strength  and  glory  to 
Port  Royal.  Even  the  early  age  of  Louis  xiv.,  "  that 
marvellous  epoch,  still  young  and  already  ripe,"  re- 
ceived lustre  from  this  book.  At  this  time  (1670) 
Moliere  had  put  forth  the  Misanthrope  and  Tartufe ; 
Bossuet  was  already  a  bishop,  and  fresh  from  his 
great  funeral  oration  on  the  Queen  of  England; 
Bourdaloue  was  beginning  to  be  known  as  a  great 
preacher ;  Boileau  was  preparing  his  Art  of  Poetry. 
At  such  a  time  the  Thoughts  of  Blaise  Pascal  appeared. 
The  book  was  greeted  with  loud  and  unanimous 
applause.  De  Tillemont  wrote  to  fitienne  Perier  ex- 
pressing his  astonishment.  "  You  know,"  he  said, 
"that  for  many  years  I  have  honoured,  or,  rather, 
admired,  the  extraordinary  gifts  of  nature  and  grace 
which  appeared  in  the  late  M.  Pascal.  I  must,  never- 
theless, confess  to  you,  sir,  that  I  have  never  before 
had  a  sufficiently  exalted  idea  of  those  gifts.  This 
last  writing  has  surpassed  all  that  I  expected  from  a 
mind  which  I  regarded  as  the  greatest  which  has 
appeared  in  our  age;"  and  then  he,  a  Port  Royalist, 
proceeds  to  compare  Pascal  to  St.  Augustine.  Some 


THE  THOUGHTS  161 

surprise  has  been  expressed  that  the  Thoughts  are 
seldom  referred  to  in  the  theological  controversies  of 
that  period.  But  it  should  be  remembered  that  neither 
was  Pascal  a  professional  theologian,  nor  was  his  book 
in  any  sense  a  theological  treatise.  His  previous 
studies,1  his  intellectual  tendencies,  even  rendered  him 
incapable  of  producing  a  work  of  great  theological 
learning.  Pascal  is,  above  all,  a  polemical  writer.  He 
was  this  in  his  Provincials,  in  which  he  attacked  the 
morality  of  the  Jesuits ;  he  remained  the  same  in  the 
Thoughts,  in  which  he  defends  religion  from  the 
attacks  of  the  Libertines  and  from  the  indifference  of 
men  of  the  world ;  and  he  does  this,  not  so  much  with 
the  skill  of  an  orator,  as  with  the  warmth  and  indigna- 
tion of  a  believer.  Pascal  was  not  a  man  of  wide 
learning.  In  the  first  part  of  the  Thoughts,  where  he 
deals  with  man,  his  mind  and  his  nature,  it  is  chiefly 
to  Montaigne  and  Charron  that  he  is  indebted.  In 
the  second  part,  which  treats  of  religious  subjects 
generally,  it  is  the  Bible  and  the  Pugio  Fidei,  a  theo- 
logical work  of  the  thirteenth  century. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  defects  of  the  original 
edition  of  the  Thoughts,  it  soon  attained  to  a  great 
circulation,  and  was  everywhere  read,  and  interest  in 
its  author  became  widespread.  In  1670  Nicole  pub- 
lished, in  a  book  of  his  own,  Pascal's  discourses  on  the 
Condition  of  the  Great.  In  1728  Father  Des  Molets 
reported  the  conversation  between  Pascal  and  de  Saci 
on  Epictetus  and  Montaigne,  and  added  several  other 
"  Thoughts,"  until  then  unpublished.  These  and  other 
publications  were  recognised  as  having  the  cachet  of 
the  Master. 

1  Cf.  Molinier,  Pensecs,  Preface,  p.  xxiii. 
II 


1 62  PASCAL 

With  regard  to  the  Thoughts,  it  is  necessary,  for  a 
moment,  to  give  some  brief  attention  to  the  various 
editions  published,  and  to  the  efforts  made  to  restore 
the  original  text.  The  next  edition,  after  that  of  Port 
Royal,  was  the  edition  edited  by  Condorcet  in  1776, 
which  had  prefixed  to  it  a  eulogium  of  Pascal  which 
has  been  properly  described  as  a  criticism  of  the 
author  which  was  harsh  and  often  unjust.  This 
edition  was  enriched  (?)  by  several  notes  of  Voltaire, 
caustic  and  incisive,  of  course,  but  of  no  permanent 
value.  These  notes  of  Voltaire's  were  only  an  expan- 
sion of  some  which  he  had  put  forth  in  1734.  At  that 
time  he  was  young,  but  he  had  already  imbibed  or 
generated  the  anti-Christian  spirit  which  was  prepar- 
ing for  the  overthrow  of  the  Church  and  Christianity 
in  France.  Pascal  was,  in  the  eyes  of  Voltaire,  the 
greatest  representative  of  supernaturalism,  and  he 
selected  him  as  the  object  of  his  attack.  Writing  to 
Formont,  he  said,  in  reference  to  his  Philosophical 
Letters :  "  Should  you  advise  me  to  add  to  them 
some  short  detached  reflections  on  the  Thoughts  of 
Pascal  ?  I  have  long  had  a  mind  to  fight  this  giant. 
There  is  no  warrior  so  well  armed  that  one  cannot 
pierce  him  without  his  breastplate;  and  I  confess  to 
you  that  if,  in  spite  of  my  weakness,  I  could  inflict 
some  blows  on  this  conqueror  of  so  many  minds,  and 
shake  off  the  yoke  with  which  he  has  covered  them,  I 
should  almost  dare  to  say  with  Lucretius — 

'Quare  [superstitio]  pedibus  subjecta  vicissirn 
Obteritur,  nos  exsequat  victoria  cselo.'1 

1  Voltaire  substitutes  superstitio  for  religio  (in  Lucretius,  i.  78). 
Munro  translates :  "Therefore  religion  is  put  under  foot  and  trampled 
in  turn  ;  us  his  victory  brings  level  with  heaven." 


THE  THOUGHTS  163 

As  for  the  rest,  I  will  set  to  work  with  precaution, 
and  I  will  criticise  only  the  parts  which  are  not  so 
closely  connected  with  our  holy  religion,  that  one 
cannot  tear  Pascal's  skin  without  making  Christianity 
bleed." 

There  was  a  strain  of  pessimism  in  Pascal ;  while  ; 
Voltaire,  like  most  of  the  Deists  of  that  period,  was 
much  given  to  optimism  —  he  had  not  yet  written 
Candide ! — and  he  looked  upon  Pascal  as  making  the 
worst  of  mankind.  "When,"  he  says,  "I  consider 
London  or  Paris,  I  see  no  reason  for  giving  way  to  the 
despair  of  which  M.  Pascal  speaks.  I  see  a  city  having 
no  resemblance  to  a  desert  island,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
populous,  wealthy,  civilised,  and  where  men  are  happy 
as  far  as  human  nature  allows.  Where  is  the  wise 
man  who  will  be  full  of  despair  because  he  does  not 
know  the  nature  of  his  thought,  because  he  is  not 
acquainted  with  some  attributes  of  matter?" 

Soon  after  the  edition  of  the  Thoughts  by  Condorcet, 
there  appeared  the  collected  works  of  Pascal,  edited 
by  the  Abbe  Bossut  in  1779.  The  text  of  this  edition 
was  very  superior  to  that  of  its  predecessor;  and 
although  it  made  no  attempt  to  correct  the  text 
throughout  in  accordance  with  the  manuscripts,  yet 
many  corrections  and  additions  were  introduced,  and 
it  remained  the  standard  edition  until  the  publication 
of  that  of  Faugere. 

Mention  should  be  made  of  an  edition  issued  by 
M.  Frantin  in  1840,  which,  however,  was  not  satisfac- 
tory. In  1842  Cousin  published  his  paper  on  the 
Necessity  of  a  New  Edition  of  Pascal,  which  gave 
the  signal  for  what  has  been  called  the  resurrection  of 
the  Thoughts.  By  a  careful  examination  of  the  manu- 


1 64  PASCAL 

scripts  he  pointed  out  the  corrupt  state  of  the  text  in 
all  the  existing  editions,  and  the  absolute  necessity  for 
a  new  edition.  Two  years  later,  in  1844,  this  task  was 
undertaken  by  M.  Prosper  Faugere,  who  put  forth  a 
revised  edition  greatly  superior  to  all  its  predecessors, 
but  still  leaving  not  a  little  to  be  desired.  At  the  time 
of  his  death  M.  Faugere  was  occupied  in  preparing  a 
complete  edition  of  the  works  of  Pascal,  of  which  the 
Provincial  Letters  are  already  published,  and  the 
Thoughts  are  expected  to  follow. 

Unfortunately  the  defects  of  this  edition  of  Faugere 
were  not  detected  for  some  years;  and  M.  Ernest 
Havet  founded  his  edition  (1852),  with  its  excellent 
commentary,  upon  that  text ;  and  this  imperfect  text 
was  continued  in  the  second  edition.  A  careful 
examination  of  the  original  MSS.  was  instituted  by 
M.  Auguste  Molinier,  as  a  result  of  which  he  published 
a  new  text  of  the  Thoughts  in  two  volumes  (1877, 
1879),  not  only  giving  every  word  as  it  stands  in  the 
original,  but  in  every  case  reproducing  the  spelling 
of  Pascal.  As  a  consequence  M.  Havet  revised  his 
text,  conforming  it  in  all  respects,  except  the  spelling, 
to  that  of  M.  Molinier.  Several  other  editions  have 
been  published,  based  upon  the  original  MSS. ;  but  the 
differences  between  these  and  the  editions  last  mentioned 
seem  to  be  in  arrangement,  not  in  text. 

In  proceeding  to  trace  the  plan  and  contents  of  this 
book,  we  naturally  turn  first  to  the  "Plan  of  the 
Thoughts"  described  as  the  "account  of  a  conference 
in  which  Pascal  explained  the  plan  and  matter  of  his 
work  on  religion."  It  forms  the  preface  to  the  first 
edition  of  the  Thoughts,  and  was  written  by  the  author's 
nephew,  fitienne  Pascal.  M.  Sainte  Beuve  describes  it 


THE  THOUGHTS  165 

as  a  luminous  abstract,  which  assists  in  penetrating 
more  deeply  into  the  Thoughts. 

It  is  well  remarked  by  Vinet,  when  discoursing  on 
this  "Plan"  of  Pascal,  that  his  Thoughts  are  not  a 
book.1  They  are  not  one  book,  but  perhaps  two,  or 
even  more.  They  are,  he  continues,  if  we  must  give 
them  a  name  and  qualify  them, — they  are  Pascal  him- 
self, all  Pascal.  They  are  only  the  papers  on  which 
this  great  man  projected  all  that  occupied  his  powerful 
mind.  Great  pains  have  been  taken  to  put  these 
papers  in  order,  and  sometimes  successfully;  but  in 
many  cases  we  cannot  be  quite  sure.  Sometimes  it 
may  even  be  suspected  that  sentiments  have  been 
ascribed  to  Pascal  which  he  meant  to  put  in  the  mouth 
of  an  opponent. 

A  good  many  of  these  "  Thoughts  "  hardly  belonged 
to  the  general  plan  of  the  collection.  They  were  jotted 
down  on  pieces  of  paper  and  got  mixed  up  with  the 
apologetic  fragments.  Of  these  may  be  mentioned  his 
reflections  on  "  Authority  in  the  subject  of  Philo- 
sophy," on  the  "  Art  of  Persuading,"  on  "  Geometry," 
and  some  thoughts  on  Philosophy  and  Literature.  But 
apart  from  these  and  some  similar  fragments,  there  is 
very  little  which  does  not  bear  upon  his  general 
design,  which  was  to  produce,  in  as  complete  a  form 
as  possible,  an  Apology  for  the  Christian  Keligion.  Of 
this  we  are  clearly  informed  in  the  preface,  to  which 
allusion  has  already  been  made. 

It  was  about  the  year  1658  when  Pascal  communi- 
cated to  his  friends  his  ideas  concerning  his  Apology. 
We  are  not  told  who  those  friends  were,  except  that 
they  were  persons  of  high  consideration,  and  people 
1  Vinet,  Du  plan  attribut  a  Pascal. 


1 66  PASCAL 

not  ready  to  admire  everything.  It  was  not  desirable 
to  obtrude  the  names  of  Arnauld  and  his  friends, 
although  they  were  probably  of  the  number.  It  was 
ten  or  twelve  years  ago,  says  M.  Pe'rier,  that  is,  before 
the  publication  of  the  Thoughts,  that  some  of  his 
friends  asked  Pascal  to  give  an  account  of  his  Plan 
viva  voce.  In  answer  to  their  request  he  developed  in 
few  words  the  plan  of  his  whole  work ;  he  told  them 
what  was  to  be  the  subject  and  the  matter  of  it,  and 
gave  a  summary  of  the  arguments  and  principles,  ex- 
plaining to  them  the  order  and  sequence  of  the  things 
which  he  meant  to  treat.  And  those  persons,  who 
were  as  capable  as  any  could  be  of  judging  concerning 
such  things,  confessed  that  they  had  never  heard  any- 
thing more  beautiful,  more  powerful,  more  touching, 
or  more  convincing ;  and  that  they  had  heard  enough 
of  the  project  and  design  of  Pascal  in  a  discourse  of 
two  or  three  hours,  made  without  premeditation  or 
labour,  to  give  them  a  notion  of  what  it  would  be  one 
day,  if  it  were  completed  and  brought  to  perfection 
by  a  person  with  whose  power  and  capacity  they  were 
acquainted,  who  was  accustomed  to  elaborate  all  his 
works,  who  was  hardly  ever  satisfied  with  his  first 
thoughts,  however  good  they  might  appear  to  others, 
and  who  had  often  rewritten  eight  or  ten  times  pieces 
which  another  would  have  thought  admirable  from 
the  beginning. 

After  showing  them  what  kind  of  proofs  make 
most  impression  on  the  minds  of  men,  and  what  are 
the  most  calculated  to  persuade  them,  he  undertook  to 
show  that  the  Christian  religion  had  as  many  marks 
of  certainty  and  of  evidence  as  the  things  which  are 
received  in  the  world  as  the  most  indubitable.  In 


THE  THOUGHTS  167 

carrying  out  this  design  he  makes  first  a  picture  of 
man,  and  presents  it  to  one  who  has  previously  lived 
in  ignorance  and  in  indifference  with  regard  to  his  own 
nature,  and  bids  him  consider  what  he  is.  Such  a 
one  is  surprised  to  discover  an  infinity  of  things  of 
which  he  has  never  thought  before,  and  he  cannot 
remark  without  astonishment  and  admiration  all  that 
Pascal  makes  him  feel  of  his  greatness  and  baseness, 
of  his  advantages  and  his  weaknesses,  of  the  little 
light  that  remains  to  him,  and  of  the  darkness  which 
environs  him  on  almost  every  side,  and,  finally,  of  all 
the  astonishing  contradictions  which  are  found  in  his 
nature.  He  cannot  after  that  remain  in  indifference, 
however  little  share  of  reason  he  may  have ;  and  how- 
ever insensible  he  may  hitherto  have  been,  he  must 
wish,  after  having  thus  known  what  he  is,  to  know 
also  whence  he  comes  and  what  he  is  to  be. 

Having  thus  aroused  an  interest  in  the  subject, 
Pascal  addresses  himself  first  to  the  philosophers,  point- 
ing out  the  defects,  weaknesses,  contradictions,  and 
falsities  in  all  that  they  have  advanced,  so  that  there 
can  be  little  difficulty  in  concluding  that  instruction 
cannot  be  had  from  them.  He  then  takes  his  hearer 
over  the  universe  and  all  the  ages  of  the  world,  show- 
ing him  the  number  of  religions  which  have  prevailed, 
at  the  same  time  pointing  out  to  him,  by  reasons 
powerful  and  convincing,  that  these  religions  are  full 
of  vanity,  folly,  errors,  mistakes,  and  extravagances, 
and  that  he  can  find  nothing  in  them  to  satisfy  him. 
He  then  takes  him  to  the  Jews,  and  shows  the 
extraordinary  circumstances  of  their  history,  and  par- 
ticularly that  unique  book  by  which  they  are  governed, 
book  from  which  he  learns  that  the  world  was 


1 68  PASCAL 

the  work  of  God,  and  that  this  same  God  created 
man  in  His  image  and  endowed  him  with  all  his  gifts 
of  body  and  soul.  Man,  however,  it  is  explained,  is 
far  from  possessing  all  those  advantages  which  he 
ought  to  have  had  when  he  came  forth  from  the  hands 
of  his  author,  and  when  he  pursues  the  reading  of 
this  same  book  he  finds  there  that,  after  man  had 
been  created  by  God  in  the  state  of  innocence,  and 
with  all  sorts  of  perfections,  his  first  action  was  to 
revolt  against  his  Creator,  and  to  employ  all  the 
advantages  which  he  had  received  from  Him  in  order 
to  offend  Him. 

After  pointing  out  the  enormity  of  this  sin,  and  the 
evil  effects  which  it  wrought,  he  shows  that  the  corrup- 
tion of  the  first  man  has  been  and  will  be  transmitted 
to  all  his  descendants  through  all  time.  These  doctrines 
he  discovers  in  many  parts  of  the  Bible. 

It  is  not  enough,  however,  to  instruct  his  learner  in 
the  misery  of  man.  The  same  book  contains  something 
that  may  bring  consolation.  It  is  there  said  that  the 
remedy  is  in  the  hands  of  God ;  that  it  is  to  Him  that 
we  ought  to  have  recourse  in  order  to  obtain  the  powers 
that  are  lacking  to  us,  and  that  He  will  send  a  Liberator 
to  men,  who  will  make  satisfaction  for  them  and  repair 
their  impotence. 

He  next  points  out  that  this  book  is  the  only  one 
which  has  spoken  worthily  of  the  Supreme  Being, 
and  which  has  given  the  idea  of  a  true  religion,  calling 
particular  attention  to  the  fact  that  it  makes  the 
essence  of  worship  to  consist  in  the  love  of  God, — a 
singular  characteristic  which  distinguishes  this  religion 
from  all  others,  the  falseness  of  which  appears  from  the 
absence  of  this  essential  mark.  Pascal  offers  no  argu- 


THE  THOUGHTS  169 

ments  in  proof  of  these  truths,  yet  he  has  produced  in 
his  hearer  a  disposition  to  receive  them  with  pleasure, 
by  reason  of  the  blessings  connected  with  them. 

Passing  from  the  truths  to  the  proof  of  them,  he 
draws  attention  principally  to  the  Book  of  Moses  in 
which  these  truths  are  particularly  set  forth ;  and  he 
shows  by  a  great  number  of  indubitable  circumstances 
that  it  was  equally  impossible  that  Moses  should  have 
recorded  falsehoods  in  his  writings,  and  that  the  people 
to  whom  he  had  left  them  should  have  allowed  them- 
selves to  be  deceived,  even  if  Moses  had  been  capable 
of  deception. 

He  spoke  also  of  all  the  great  miracles  which  are 
recorded  in  this  book,  and  of  what  great  importance 
they  are  for  the  religion  which  is  taught  there;  he 
proved  that  it  was  impossible  that  they  should  be 
untrue,  not  only  by  the  authority  of  the  book  in  which 
they  are  contained,  but  also  by  all  the  circumstances 
which  accompany  them  and  which  place  them  beyond 
doubt. 

He  next  pointed  out  the  figurative  character  of  the 
law  of  Moses,  finding  its  realisation  in  the  coming  of 
the  Messiah.  He  then  undertook  to  prove  the  truth 
of  the  Christian  religion  by  the  prophecies;  and  he 
expatiated  further  on  this  point  than  on  any  other. 
Finally,  having  gone  through  the  books  of  the  Old 
Testament,  he  undertook  to  speak  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  thence  to  draw  proofs  of  the  truth  of  the 
gospel. 

He  began  with  Jesus  Christ ;  and  although  he  had 
already  given  irresistible  proof  of  Him  by  the  pro- 
phecies, and  by  all  the  figures  of  the  law  of  which 
there  was  seen  in  Him  the  perfect  accomplishment,  he 


170  PASCAL 

brought  forward  many  more  proofs  drawn  from  His 
person,  His  miracles,  His  doctrine,  and  from  the  cir- 
cumstances of  His  life. 

He  then  took  up  the  apostles ;  and  in  order  to  show 
the  truth  of  the  faith  which  they  proclaimed  every- 
where, after  having  established  that  they  could  not  be 
accused  of  falseness,  unless  by  supposing  either  that 
they  had  been  impostors,  or  had  themselves  been  im- 
posed upon,  he  showed  clearly  that  either  of  these 
suppositions  was  equally  impossible.  Finally,  he  forgot 
nothing  which  could  serve  for  the  defence  of  the 
truth  of  the  gospel  history,  making  beautiful  remarks 
upon  the  gospel  itself,  on  the  style  of  the  evangelists,  and 
on  their  persons ;  on  the  apostles  in  particular,  and  on 
their  writings ;  on  the  prodigious  number  of  miracles ; 
on  the  martyrs ;  on  the  saints ;  in  a  word,  on  all  the 
ways  by  which  the  Christian  religion  is  completely 
established.  And  although  there  was  not  time  in  a 
simple  discourse  to  treat  so  vast  a  theme  at  length,  as  he 
designed  to  do  in  his  work,  he  nevertheless  said  enough 
to  prove  that  all  that  could  not  be  the  work  of  men, 
and  that  it  was  God  alone  who  could  have  led  the 
issue  of  so  many  different  effects,  all  equally  concurring 
to  prove  in  an  invincible  manner  the  religion  which  He 
came  Himself  to  establish  among  men. 

Although  we  have  condensed  some  portions  of  this 
report  of  Pascal's  Plan,  we  may  not  improperly  close 
with  the  words  of  M.  Perier:  "This  is  the  substance 
of  the  principal  things  on  which  he  undertook  to  speak 
in  his  discourse,  which  he  presented  to  those  who  heard 
him  as  only  an  abridgment  of  the  great  work  which 
he  meditated;  and  it  is  by  means  of  one  of  those 
who  were  there  present  that  we  came  to  know  the 


THE  THOUGHTS  171 

little  which  I  have  here  put  on  record."  We  shall 
have  opportunities  of  remarking  the  accuracy  of  this 
report. 

In  the  preface  of  Port  Royal  from  which  we  have 
obtained  the  Plan,  as  given  viva  voce  by  Pascal  to  his 
friends,  we  have  an  interesting  statement  of  his  design 
in  a  fragment  found  among  those  which  formed  the 
book  of  Thoughts,  but  not  placed  in  that  collection.  It 
runs  as  follows :  "  I  shall  not  here  undertake  to  prove  , 
by  natural  reasons  either  the  existence  of  God,  or  the 
Trinity,  or  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul,  nor  anything 
of  that  kind;  not  only  because  I  should  not  think 
myself  sufficiently  powerful  to  find  in  nature  that 
which  would  convince  hardened  atheists,  but  also  be- 
cause this  knowledge,  without  Jesus  Christ,  is  useless 
and  barren.  Even  if  a  man  should  be  persuaded  that 
the  proportions  of  numbers  are  verities,  immaterial, 
eternal,  and  dependent  upon  a  first  Verity,  in  whom 
they  subsist,  and  who  is  called  God,  I  should  not  find 
him  much  advanced  in  the  way  of  salvation." 

He  thinks  that  such  arguments  have  little  power  over 
the  majority  ;  and  even  that  the  few  who  are  convinced 
by  them  are  not  permanently  influenced.  According 
to  Pascal,  the  kind  of  proof  which  is  most  widely  re- 
ceived and  felt,  and  which  has  most  practical  efficacy, 
is  the  moral  and  historical.  Arguments  of  this  kind 
are  no  less  convincing  than  the  others,  and  they  are 
more  accessible,  more  penetrating,  and  more  easily 
dealt  with. 

It  is  thought  that,  in  some  of  these  remarks  on 
the  metaphysical  proof  of  God,  Pascal  is  aiming  at 
Descartes;  and  that  although  he  says  very  little  of 
Descartes,  he  thinks  a  great  deal,  and  indirectly  seeks 


i;2  PASCAL 

to  neutralise  his  influence.  "  I  cannot  pardon  Des- 
cartes," he  said ;  "  he  would  have  liked,  in  all  his 
philosophy,  to  do  without  God ;  but  he  could  not 
prevent  His  giving  a  fillip  to  put  the  world  in  motion. 
After  that  he  has  no  more  to  do  with  God."  And  he 
had  the  same  objection  to  the  metaphysics  of  Descartes 
as  to  his  physics. 

It  is  not  quite  easy  to  decide  as  to  the  best  arrange- 
ment of  these  scattered  fragments  which  we  designate 
the  Thoughts  of  Pascal.  But  all  the  editors  seem 
to  have  had  some  regard  to  the  outline  given  in  the 
"  Plan  "  contained  in  the  original  preface ;  and  most 
of  them  place  near  the  beginning  of  the  collection 
that  which  appears  as  the  first  Article  in  the  Port 
Royal  edition  and  in  that  of  Havet.  In  this  large 
section  the  writer  sets  forth  at  some  length  his  opinions 
respecting  human  nature,  its  greatness  and  its  little- 
ness, and  also  his  want  of  faith  in  unaided  human 
reason  as  a  guide. 

Greatness  and  Misery  of  Man 

In  regard  to  human  nature,  Pascal  is  ever  earnest 
in  maintaining  that  man  is  not  a  god  or  an  angel  on 
the  one  side,  nor  on  the  other  is  he  a  brute.  He  is  a 
creature  made  in  the  image  of  God,  who  has  fallen 
from  his  high  estate.  So  also,  he  contends,  he  is  neither 
everything  nor  nothing — he  lies  between  the  two. 

"  He  who  considers  himself  in  this  manner,"  he  goes 
on,  "  will  be  afraid  of  himself,  and,  considering  himself 
sustained  in  the  mass  which  nature  has  given  him, 
between  those  two  abysses  of  the  Infinite  and  the 
Nothing,  will  tremble  at  the  sight  of  those  marvels; 


THE  THOUGHTS  173 

and  I  believe  that  his  curiosity  will  change  into  ad- 
miration, and  he  will  be  more  disposed  to  contemplate 
them  in  silence  than  to  examine  them  with  presump- 
tion. 

"  For,  in  fact,  what  is  man  in  nature  ?  A  Nothing  in 
comparison  with  the  Infinite,  an  All  in  comparison  with 
the  Nothing,  a  Mean  between  nothing  and  everything. 
Since  he  is  infinitely  removed  from  comprehending  the 
extremes,  the  end  of  things  and  their  beginning  are 
for  him  hopelessly  concealed  in  an  impenetrable  secret ; 
so  that  he  is  equally  incapable  of  seeing  the  Nothing 
from  whence  he  is  drawn,  and  the  Infinite  in  which  he 
is  swallowed  up. 

"What  will  he  do  then,  but  perceive  the  appear- 
ance of  the  middle  of  things,  in  an  eternal  despair  of 
knowing  either  their  beginning  or  their  end?  All 
things  proceed  from  the  Nothing,  and  are  carried  on 
to  the  Infinite.  Who  will  follow  these  astonishing 
processes  ?  The  author  of  these  marvels  comprehends 
them ;  no  other  can."  .  .  . 

"  Let  us  then  know  our  compass :  we  are  something, 
and  we  are  not  everything.  That  which  we  have  of 
being  deprives  us  of  the  knowledge  of  first  beginnings 
which  are  born  of  the  Nothing,  and  the  little  that  we 
have  of  being  conceals  from  us  the  view  of  the  Infinite. 
— In  the  order  of  intelligible  things  our  intelligence 
holds  the  same  rank  as  our  body  does  in  the  extent  of 
nature. — Limited  in  both  departments,  this  state  which 
holds  the  mean  between  two  extremes  is  found  in  all 
our  impotences. 

"  Our  senses  perceive  nothing  extreme.  Too  much 
sound  deafens  us ;  too  much  light  dazzles  us ;  too  great 
distance  and  too  great  proximity  hinder  our  view.  Too 


174  PASCAL 

great  length  and  too  great  brevity  of  discourse  alike 
tend  to  obscurity. 

"And  that  which  completes  our  incapability  of 
knowing  things  is  the  fact  that  they  are  simple  in 
themselves,  and  that  we  are  composed  of  two  opposite 
natures,  of  different  kinds,  of  soul  and  body.  For  it 
is  impossible  that  the  part  which  reasons  in  us  should 
be  other  than  spiritual ;  and  if  anyone  maintain  that 
we  are  simply  corporal,  that  would  exclude  us  alto- 
gether from  the  knowledge  of  things,  there  being 
nothing  so  inconceivable  as  to  say  that  matter  knows 
itself.  It  is  not  possible  for  us  to  imagine  how  it 
should  know  itself.  And  thus,  if  we  are  simply 
material,  we  can  know  nothing  at  all ;  and  if  we  are 
composed  of  mind  and  matter,  we  cannot  know  per- 
fectly things  which  are  simple,  whether  spiritual  or 
corporal.  .  .  . 

"  Who  would  not  think,  seeing  us  compose  all  things 
of  mind  and  body,  that  this  mixture  would  be  quite 
comprehensible  to  us  ?  Yet  this  is  the  very  thing 
that  we  understand  the  least.  Man  is  to  himself 
the  most  prodigious  object  in  nature ;  for  he  cannot 
conceive  what  the  body  is,  and  still  less  that  which 
the  mind  is,  and  less  than  anything  else  how  a  body 
can  be  united  with  a  mind.  That  is  the  crown 
of  his  difficulties;  and  yet  that  is  his  essential 
nature :  Modus  quo  corporibus  adhcerent  spiritus  com- 
prehendi  ab  hominibus  non  potest,  et  hoc  tamen 
homo  est"1 

Here  we  have  a  striking  statement  of  Pascal's  views 
as  to  the  limitations  alike  of  man's  being  and  man's 
knowledge.  Moreover,  we  have  here  a  problem  started 
1  St.  Augustine,  De  Civ.  Dei,  xxi.  10. 


THE  THOUGHTS  175 

which  we  may  perhaps  say  that  Pascal  received  from 
Descartes,  in  the  problem  of  the  dual  nature  of  mind 
and  matter,  which  may  be  said  to  have  occupied  the 
thoughts  of  philosophers  ever  since.  We  see  here  an 
approach  to  the  mode  of  thought  which  has  rendered 
Pascal  exposed  to  the  charge  of  Pyrrhonism,  to  which 
we  shall  have  again  to  refer. 

Pascal  is  at  great  pains  to  set  forth  the  depth  to 
which  man  has  fallen ;  but,  in  order  to  make  this  clear, 
he  must  first  point  out  the  height  from  which  he  has 
come  down ;  and  he  insists  with  great  emphasis  upon 
the  greatness  of  man,  and  that  which  constitutes  his 
greatness.  He  says : — 

"I  can  quite  conceive  of  a  man  without  hands, 
feet,  head,  for  it  is  only  by  experience  we  are  taught 
that  the  head  is  more  necessary  than  the  feet.  But  I 
cannot  conceive  man  without  thought;  that  would 
be  a  stone  or  a  brute. 

"  The  greatness  of  man  is  great  in  the  fact  that  he 
knows  himself  to  be  miserable.  A  tree  does  not  know 
itself  to  be  miserable.  It  is,  then,  being  miserable  to 
know  oneself  to  be  miserable.  All  these  very  miseries 
prove  man's  greatness.  They  are  the  miseries  of  a 
great  lord — of  a  king  deposed. 

"  The  greatness  of  man  is  so  visible  that  it  is  even 
inferred  from  his  misery.  For  that  which  is  nature  in 
animals  we  call  misery  in  man,  whereby  we  recognise 
that  his  nature  being  now  like  to  that  of  the  animals, 
he  has  fallen  from  a  better  nature  which  was  formerly 
his  own. — For  who  finds  himself  unhappy  at  not  being 
a  king,  but  a  king  deposed  ?  Was  Paulus  Emilius 
thought  unfortunate  because  of  not  being  longer 
consul  ?  On  the  contrary,  everyone  thought  him 


1 76  PASCAL 

fortunate  in  having  been  so ;  because  his  circumstances 
did  not  permit  of  his  being  so  always.  But  Perseus 
was  thought  unfortunate  in  being  no  longer  king, 
because  his  circumstances  allowed  of  his  being  so 
always,  so  that  it  was  thought  strange  that  he  endured 
life.  Who  thinks  himself  unfortunate  in  having  only 
one  mouth  ?  And  who  will  not  think  himself  so  in 
having  only  one  eye.  One  is  probably  never  afflicted 
at  not  having  three  eyes,  but  he  is  inconsolable  if  he 
has  none.  .  .  . 

"  The  greatest  baseness  of  man  is  the  pursuit  of 
glory ;  but  this  very  thing  is  the  greatest  mark  of  his 
excellence;  for  whatever  possession  he  may  have  on 
earth,  whatever  health  and  essential  convenience,  he  is 
not  satisfied  if  he  has  not  the  esteem  of  men.  He 
values  so  highly  the  reason  of  man,  that,  whatever 
advantage  he  may  have  on  the  earth,  if  he  is  not  advan- 
tageously placed  also  in  the  reason  of  man,  he  is  not 
contented.  That  is  the  finest  place  in  the  world. 
Nothing  can  turn  him  from  that  desire,  and  it  is  the 
most  ineffaceable  quality  of  the  heart  of  man.  And 
those  who  most  despise  men  and  put  them  on  a  level 
with  the  beasts,  yet  wish  to  be  admired  and  trusted  by 
them,  and  contradict  themselves  in  their  thoughts ; 
their  nature,  which  is  stronger  than  all,  convincing 
them  of  the  greatness  of  man  more  forcibly  than  their 
reason  convinces  them  of  his  baseness." 

And  here  follows  that  passage  so  often  quoted,  and 
so  worthy  to  be  remembered  as  altogether  character- 
istic of  its  writer :  "  Man  is  but  a  reed,  the  most  feeble 
thing  in  nature ;  but  he  is  a  thinking  reed.  It  is  not 
necessary  that  the  whole  universe  should  arm  itself  to 
crush  him — a  vapour,  a  drop  of  water  suffices  to  kill 


THE  THOUGHTS  177 

him.  But  though  the  universe  should  crush  him,  man 
would  still  be  more  noble  than  that  which  kills  him, 
because  he  knows  that  he  dies  and  the  advantage 
which  the  universe1  has  over  him.  The  universe 
knows  nothing  of  this. — All  our  dignity,  then,  consists 
in  thought.  It  is  by  this  that  we  must  raise  ourselves, 
not  by  space  and  time  which  we  cannot  fill.  Let  us 
labour,  then,  to  think  well.  This  is  the  principle  of 
morality." 

Here  again  we  see  the  influence  of  Descartes,  who 
not  only  taught  the  existence  of  two  heterogeneous 
substances,  mind  and  matter,  but  who  said  that  Thought 
was  the  distinguishing  quality  of  mind,  and  Extension 
of  matter.  And  so  Pascal  proceeds :  "  It  is  not  from 
space  that  I  must  seek  my  dignity,  but  from  the 
regulation  of  my  thought.  I  shall  have  no  more  if  I 
possess  worlds.  By  space  the  world  comprehends  and 
swallows  me  down  like  a  point ;  by  thought  I  compre- 
hend the  world. 

"  It  is  dangerous  to  let  a  man  see  too  clearly  how 
much  he  is  on  a  level  with  the  beasts,  without  showing 
him  his  greatness ;  and  it  is  also  dangerous  to  let  him 
see  his  greatness  too  clearly,  without  seeing  his  baseness. 
It  is  still  more  dangerous  to  allow  him  to  remain  in 
ignorance  of  both.  But  it  is  very  advantageous  to  set 
both  before  him. — A  man  should  not  be  made  to  believe 
that  he  is  on  a  level  with  the  beasts,  nor  yet  with  the 
angels;  nor  should  he  be  ignorant  of  his  relation  to 
both.  It  is  well  that  he  should  know  both. 

"  Let  man  now  know  his  value.  Let  him  love  him- 
self, for  there  is  in  him  a  nature  capable  of  good ;  but 

1  The  universe  here,  as  elsewhere  in  Pascal,  signifies  the  material 
world,  and  not  the  totality  of  existence. 
12 


1 78  PASCAL 

let  him  not  for  this  reason  love  the  baseness  which 
is  there.  Let  him  despise  himself  since  this  capacity  is 
empty ;  but  let  him  not,  for  that  reason,  despise  this 
natural  capacity.  Let  him  hate  himself,  let  him  love 
himself ;  he  possesses  in  himself  the  capacity  for  know- 
ing the  truth  and  being  happy;  but  he  has  no  truth 
either  constant  or  satisfying. — I  would  then  lead  men  on 
to  desire  to  find  truth,  and  to  be  ready  and  freed  from 
the  passions,  in  order  to  follow  it  wherever  he  shall 
find  it,  knowing  how  much  his  knowledge  is  obscured 
by  the  passions.  I  would  have  him  hate  in  himself  the 
concupiscence  which  determines  him  by  itself,  so  that 
it  may  not  blind  him  in  making  his  choice,  nor  hinder 
him  when  he  has  chosen.  .  .  . 

"  The  nature  of  man  may  be  considered  in  two  ways : 
the  one  according  to  his  end,  and  then  he  is  great  and 
incomparable;  the  other  according  to  the  life  of  the 
multitude,  just  as  we  judge  of  the  nature  of  the  horse 
or  the  dog  by  the  action  of  numbers  in  the  course,  et 
animum  arcendi,  and  then  man  is  abject  and  vile. 
And  these  are  the  two  ways  which  make  us  judge 
diversely  of  him,  and  which  make  so  many  disputes 
among  philosophers.  For  the  one  denies  the  assump- 
tion of  the  other.  The  one  says,  He  is  not  born  for 
this  end,  for  all  his  actions  are  repugnant  to  it;  and 
the  other  says :  He  departs  from  his  end  when  he  does 
these  base  actions. 

"  Two  things  instruct  a  man  in  regard  to  his  whole 
nature,  instinct,  and  experience. 

"I  feel  that  I  need  not  have  been;  for  my  Ego 
consists  in  my  thought.  Now,  I  who  think  should  not 
have  been,  if  my  mother  had  been  killed  before  I  had 
received  life.  I  am  not,  then,  a  necessary  being.  Thus 


THE  THOUGHTS  179 

I  am  not  eternal  or  infinite ;  but  I  see  well  that  there 
is  in  nature  a  necessary  Being,  eternal  and  infinite." 

According  to  M.  K  Havet,  Pascal  argues  here  for  the 
necessary  being  of  the  mother  out  of  which  man  was 
formed.  But  surely  his  argument  is  deeper  and  more 
far-reaching.  As  far  as  his  own  personality  is  con- 
cerned, he  need  not  have  existed;  but  something 
existed,  and  that  something,  although  it  may  itself  be 
contingent,  is  traced  back  to  a  Being  Who  is  necessary, 
eternal,  and  infinite.  We  might  say,  perhaps,  that 
while  Pascal  is  not  inclined  to  lay  stress  upon  the 
ontological  proof  of  the  existence  of  God.  he  recognises 
the  power  of  the  cosmological. 

The  Vanity  of  Man  the  Effect  of  Self -Love 

Pascal  had  enlarged  upon  man's  greatness  and  little- 
ness, and  the  misery  which  results  from  his  failure  to 
realise  his  true  being.  He  now  goes  on  (Art.  ii.)  to 
speak  of  his  dissatisfaction  with  his  actual  self,  of  the 
idea  which  he  forms  of  what  he  ought  to  be,  and  of  his 
striving  to  seem  to  be  this  ideal.  Under  this  head  he 
inveighs  against  our  pride  and  vanity.  He  says : — 

"  We  are  not  satisfied  with  the  life  which  we  have 
in  us  and  in  our  own  being ;  we  want  to  live  in  the 
idea  of  others  an  imaginary  life,  and  we  strive  to  make 
that  appear.  We  toil  incessantly  to  embellish  and  to 
sustain  this  imaginary  being,  and  we  neglect  the 
actual.  And  if  we  have  either  tranquillity  or  gener- 
osity, or  fidelity,  we  do  our  best  to  make  it  known,  in 
order  to  attach  these  virtues  to  this  being  of  our 
imagination.  We  would  rather  detach  them  from 
ourselves  in  order  to  join  them  on  to  this  ideal;  and 


1 80  PASCAL 

we  should  be  willing  to  be  cowards  in  order  to  acquire 
the  reputation  of  being  courageous.  A  great  sign  of 
the  nothingness  of  our  real  being,  not  to  be  satisfied 
with  the  one  without  the  other,  and  often  to  renounce 
the  one  for  the  other.  For  he  who  would  not  die  to 
preserve  his  honour  would  be  disgraced.  .  .  . 

"  Pride  holds  us  with  a  possession  so  natural  in  the 
midst  of  our  miseries,  errors,  etc.  We  lose  even  life 
with  joy,  provided  it  is  spoken  of.  ...  We  are  so 
presumptuous  that  we  should  like  to  be  known  by  the 
whole  world,  and  even  by  those  who  will  come  when 
we  are  no  longer  here ;  and  we  are  so  vain  that  the 
esteem  of  five  or  six  persons  who  are  about  us  amuses 
and  satisfies  us.1 

"  Curiosity  is  but  vanity.  Most  commonly  we  desire 
knowledge  only  that  we  may  talk  of  it.  Other- 
wise people  would  not  cross  the  sea  if  they  could  say 
nothing  about  it,  or  for  the  sole  pleasure  of  seeing, 
without  hope  of  ever  communicating  their  know- 
ledge. .  .  . 

"  The  nature  of  self-love  and  of  this  human  Ego  is  to 
love  only  self  and  to  consider  only  self.  But  what  will 
man  do  ?  He  cannot  prevent  this  object  that  he  loves 
from  being  full  of  faults  and  miseries.  He  wants  to 
be  great,  and  he  sees  himself  small.  He  wants  to  be 
happy,  and  he  sees  himself  miserable.  He  wants  to 
be  perfect,  and  he  sees  himself  full  of  imperfections. 
He  wants  to  be  the  object  of  the  love  and  esteem  of  men, 
and  he  sees  that  his  faults  merit  only  their  aversion  and 
contempt.  This  embarrassment  which  he  experiences 

1  "  Vain  in  the  sense  of  the  Latin  vani  ;  that  is  light,  wanting  in  seri- 
ousness, so  easy  to  content  with  things  vain  and  empty.  It  is  a  term 
habitual  with  Pascal. "— Havet. 


THE  THOUGHTS  181 

produces  in  him  the  most  unjust  and  criminal  passion 
that  can  be  imagined ;  for  he  conceives  a  mortal  hatred 
against  this  truth  which  reproves  him,  and  which 
convinces  him  of  his  faults.  He  would  wish  to  anni- 
hilate it ;  and  not  being  able  to  destroy  it  in  itself,  he 
destroys  it  as  much  as  he  can  in  his  knowledge  and  in 
that  of  others ;  that  is  to  say,  he  takes  every  pains  to 
hide  his  faults  from  others  and  from  himself,  and  he  will 
not  allow  anyone  to  show  them  to  him  nor  to  see  them. 

"  It  is  without  doubt  an  evil  to  be  full  of  faults ;  but 
it  is  a  still  greater  evil  to  be  full  of  them  and  to  be 
unwilling  to  acknowledge  them,  since  this  is  to  add  the 
fault  of  a  voluntary  illusion.  We  do  not  like  that 
others  should  deceive  us ;  we  do  not  think  it  fair  that 
they  should  desire  to  be  esteemed  by  us  more  highly 
than  they  deserve ;  it  is  not,  then,  fair  that  we  should 
deceive  them,  and  that  we  should  wish  them  to  esteem 
us  more  highly  than  we  deserve. 

"  So,  when  they  discover  only  imperfections  and  vices 
which  we  actually  have,  it  is  patent  that  they  do  us  no 
wrong,  since  it  is  not  they  who  are  the  cause  of  them, 
and  that  they  are  doing  us  a  service  since  they  assist 
to  deliver  us  from  an  evil  which  is  our  ignorance  of 
these  imperfections.  We  ought  not  to  be  offended  by 
their  knowing  them,  and  by  their  slighting  us,  since  it 
is  right  that  they  should  know  us  for  what  we  are,  and 
that  they  should  slight  us  if  we  are  deserving  of  being 
slighted. 

"  Such  are  the  sentiments  which  would  arise  in  a 
heart  full  of  equity  and  justice.  What  then  should  we 
think  of  ourselves  when  we  see  in  us  a  disposition 
quite  contrary  ?  For  is  it  not  true  that  we  hate  the 
truth  and  those  who  speak  it,  and  that  we  like  them 


1 82  PASCAL 

to  deceive  themselves  for  our  advantage,  and  that  we 
want  to  be  esteemed  by  them  as  being  different  from 
what  we  are  in  fact." 

In  this  severe  strain  the  rigorous  writer  proceeds, 
doubtless  with  complete  sincerity,  but  perhaps  with 
less  charity ;  and  the  Article  closes  with  the  following 
paragraph :  "  Man,  then,  is  only  disguise,  falsehood, 
and  hypocrisy,  both  in  himself  and  in  regard  to  others. 
He  does  not  want  to  have  the  truth  spoken,  he  avoids 
speaking  it  to  others ;  and  all  these  dispositions,  so  far 
removed  from  justice  and  reason,  have  a  natural  root 
in  his  heart."  Probably  most  readers  will  feel  as 
Voltaire  did  in  reading  such  language,  that  they  want 
"to  take  the  side  of  humanity  against  this  sublime 
misanthrope."  Regarding  fallen  man  as  such,  that  is, 
as  an  abstraction,  such  language  may  be  theologically 
justifiable  of  the  unregenerate  man,  of  one  who  has 
only  "works  done  before  justification";  but  this 
abstract  man  cannot  properly  be  taken  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  mankind  in  general  so  long  as  we  have 
such  a  text  in  the  Bible  as  that  which  declares  that 
"in  every  nation  he  that  feareth  Him  and  worketh 
righteousness  is  acceptable  to  Him."  So  much,  per- 
haps, may  be  said,  once  for  all,  on  such  passages. 

Weakness  of  Man —  Uncertainty  of  his  Knowledge 

The  next  Article  (iii.)  is,  in  several  ways,  remark- 
able, dealing,  as  it  does,  with  human  weakness  and 
with  the  uncertainty  of  our  knowledge.  But  the 
sections  here  are  not  so  closely  connected  as  in  the 
previous  Articles.  The  author  starts  with  some  of  the 
difficulties  of  judgment  and  knowledge 


THE  THOUGHTS  183 

"  If  one  is  too  young,  he  does  not  judge  well ;  if  too 
old,  the  same.  If  one  does  not  reflect  enough  — ;  if 
too  much,  he  becomes  obstinate.  If  one  considers  his 
work  immediately  after  having  done  it,  he  is  still  too 
prejudiced ;  if  too  long  afterwards,  he  does  not  keep 
hold  of  it.  Thus  with  pictures  seen  too  far  off  and  too 
near ;  and  there  is  only  an  indivisible  point  which  is 
the  true  place.  The  other  places  are  too  near  or  too 
far,  too  high  or  too  low.  In  the  art  of  painting  the 
point  is  determined  by  the  perspective.  But  in  truth 
and  morality  who  will  assign  it  ? " 

He  then  proceeds  to  point  out  the  errors  induced  by 
the  imagination,  speaking  of  it  as  "this  arrogant 
power,  the  enemy  of  reason,  which  delights  to  control 
and  to  dominate  it,  in  order  to  show  how  much  it  can 
do  in  all  things  " ;  and  he  declares  that  "  it  has  estab- 
lished in  man  a  second  nature."  One  remarkable 
though  brief  paragraph  deserves  notice :  "  The  imagin- 
ation disposes  of  everything ;  it  makes  beauty,  justice, 
and  happiness,  which  is  everything  in  the  world.  I 
should  much  like  to  see  the  Italian  book  of  which  I 
know  only  the  title,  which,  by  itself  alone,  is  worth 
many  books,  Delia  Opinione  Regina,  del  Hondo}-  .  .  . 
There  is  another  source  of  error,"  he  says,  "  sicknesses. 
They  spoil  the  judgment  and  the  sense.  And  if  the 
serious  maladies  affect  it  sensibly,  I  doubt  not  that  the 
smaller  ones  make  a  proportionate  impression." 

Further  on  he  declares :  "  There  is  a  universal  and 
essential  difference  between  the  actings  of  the  will  and 
all  other  actions.  The  will  is  one  of  the  principal 

1  In  Article  xxiv.  91,  Pascal  says:  "Force  is  Queen  of  the  world, 
and  not  opinion ;  but  opinion  is  that  which  uses  force. "  In  v.  5  he 
says  :  "Opinion  is  as  Queen  of  the  world,  but  Force  is  its  tyrant." 


1 84  PASCAL 

organs  of  belief ;  not  that  it  forms  belief,  but  because 
the  things  are  true  or  false  according  to  the  aspect  in 
which  one  regards  them.  The  will,  which  finds  more 
pleasure  in  the  one  than  in  the  other,  turns  away  the 
mind  from  comprehending  the  qualities  of  those  things 
which  it  does  not  like  to  see ;  and  thus  the  mind,  pro- 
ceeding along  with  the  will,  stops  to  consider  the 
aspect  which  it  likes,  and  so  it  judges  of  things  by  that 
which  it  sees  of  them." 

Here  comes  Pascal's  explanation  of  man's  proneness 
to  error:  "Man  is  only  a  subject  of  error  natural  and 
ineffaceable,  without  grace.  Nothing  shows  him  the 
truth;  everything  abuses  him.  These  two  sources  of 
truth,  reason  and  the  senses,  besides  that  they  both 
lack  sincerity,  abuse  each  other  in  turn.  The  senses 
abuse  the  reason  by  false  appearances ;  and  this  very 
trickery  which  they  practise  on  the  reason  they  re- 
ceive from  reason  in  their  turn ;  she  revenges  herself. 
The  passions  of  the  soul  trouble  the  senses,  and  make 
false  impressions  upon  them.  They  rival  each  other 
in  falsehood  and  deception." 

Diversion 

The  fourth  Article  has  for  its  heading  a  subject 
which  has  a  very  prominent  place  in  the  teaching  of 
Pascal,  "The  Misery  of  Man."  Such  was  the  title 
given  by  the  Port  Royal  editors ;  but,  in  point  of  fact, 
the  subject  treated  is  Diversion  or  Amusement  — 
divertissement — in  the  etymological  sense  of  the  word, 
meaning  that  which  diverts,  turns  aside,  or  distracts. 
It  is  not  very  easy  to  connect  these  fragments  to- 
gether, yet  some  of  them  are  of  considerable  interest. 


THE  THOUGHTS  185 

Pascal  introduces  the  subject  of  diversion  in  the 
following  manner.  'When,  he  says,  he  considers  the 
various  agitations  of  men,  the  dangers  and  troubles  of 
every  situation,  he  feels  inclined  to  think  that  a  man's 
happiness  should  consist  in  remaining  quietly  at  home. 
But  when  he  looks  more  closely  at  the  subject,  he  sees 
that  our  miseries  come  from  our  natural  feeble  and 
mortal  condition,  so  that  nothing  can  really  console  us. 

"  Hence  it  comes,"  he  says,  "  that  men  so  much  love 
noise  and  movement ;  hence  it  comes  that  a  prison  is 
such  a  horrible  punishment;  hence  it  comes  that  the 
pleasure  of  solitude  is  a  thing  incomprehensible.  And 
it  is,  in  fact,  the  greatest  source  of  felicity  in  the  con- 
dition of  kings  that  there  is  a  perpetual  endeavour 
to  divert  them  and  to  procure  for  them  all  sorts  of 
pleasures.  .  .  . 

"  Thus  passes  away  all  man's  life.  Men  seek  repose 
in  combating  certain  obstacles;  and,  if  they  are  sur- 
mounted, repose  becomes  insupportable.  For  we  think 
either  of  the  miseries  which  we  have,  or  of  those 
which  threaten  us.  And  even  if  we  should  see  our- 
selves sheltered  on  all  sides,  weariness  (ennui)  on  its 
own  account  would  not  fail  to  emerge  from  the  depth 
of  the  heart,  where  it  has  natural  roots,  and  fill  the 
mind  with  its  poison."  And  then  comes  an  interesting 
illustration  from  gambling  for  money.  Again  he 
goes  on — 

"  The  only  thing  which  consoles  us  in  our  miseries  is 
diversion,  and  yet  this  is  the  greatest  of  our  miseries. 
For  it  is  this  which  principally  hinders  us  from  think- 
ing of  ourselves,  and  which  makes  us  insensibly  ruin 
ourselves.  Without  this  we  should  be  in  a  state  of 
weariness,  and  this  weariness  would  drive  us  to  a 


1 86  PASCAL 

more  solid  means  of  escaping  from  it.  But  diver- 
sion amuses  us,  and  makes  us  arrive  insensibly  at 
death.  .  .  . 

"  Let  us  imagine  a  number  of  men  in  chains,  and  all 
condemned  to  death,  where  a  certain  number  were 
each  day  killed  in  sight  of  the  rest,  so  that  those 
remaining  saw  their  own  condition  in  that  of  their 
fellows,  and  looking  on  them  sorrowfully  and  hope- 
lessly, waited  for  their  turn.  It  is  an  image  of  the 
condition  of  men." 

Here  we  have  ever  the  refrain  of  Ecclesiastes : 
"Vanity  of  vanities:  all  is  vanity." 

Certain  popular  Opinions 

The  Article  (v.)  which  stands  next  in  our  book  is  of 
a  miscellaneous  character,  and  is  entitled  "  Reasons  for 
some  Opinions  of  the  People";  and  here  the  author 
says  he  means  to  write  down  his  thoughts  "  without 
order,  and  not  perhaps  in  a  confusion  without  design, 
which,"  he  says,  "is  the  true  order,  and  will  always 
indicate  my  object  by  the  very  disorder.  I  should  do 
too  much  honour  to  my  subject  if  I  treated  it  with 
order,  since  I  wish  to  show  that  it  is  incapable  of  it." 
The  meaning  of  all  this  is  obvious,  and  it  is  very  like 
Pascal.  An  interesting  fragment  is  the  third,  which 
the  Port  Royalists  judiciously  suppressed.  He  is 
speaking  of  the  great  evil  of  civil  wars.  Even  a  bad 
king  who  comes  to  the  throne  by  succession  is  hardly 
so  mischievous.  "The  evil  to  be  feared  from  a  fool 
who  succeeds  by  right  of  birth  is  neither  so  great  nor 
so  sure" — not  quite  a  sentence  to  be  printed  in  the 
reign  of  Louis  xiv. 


THE  THOUGHTS  187 

Here  is  a  paragraph  which  connects  itself  with  one 
already  quoted.  "The  government  founded  upon 
opinion  and  imagination  holds  sway  for  some  time, 
and  this  government  is  pleasant  and  voluntary;  that 
of  force  holds  sway  always.  Thus  Opinion  is  Queen 
of  the  world,  but  Force  is  its  tyrant." 

"  Epictetus  asks  why  we  are  not  offended  if  we  are 
told  that  we  have  a  headache,  and  that  we  are 
offended  if  we  are  told  that  we  reason  badly,  or  that 
we  make  a  bad  choice.  The  reason  is,  that  we  are 
quite  certain  that  we  have  not  a  headache;  but  we 
are  not  so  assured  that  we  make  a  true  choice.  So 
that  having  no  other  assurance  except  that  we  see  a 
thing  in  full  view,  while  another  as  clearly  sees  the 
contrary,  we  are  brought  into  suspense  and  surprise ; 
and  still  more  when  a  thousand  others  deride  our 
choice.  For  we  must  prefer  our  own  lights  to  those  of 
so  many  others,  and  that  is  bold  and  difficult.  There 
is  never  such  a  contradiction  in  the  senses." 


Detached  moral  Thoughts 

In  the  next  Article  (vi.),  "  Detached  moral  Thoughts," 
there  is  the  same  lack  of  connection  between  the 
sections.  Yet  certain  thoughts  are  prominent;  for 
example,  the  evil  and  the  predominance  of  selfishness, 
and  the  separation  of  theory  and  practice.  "  All  good 
maxims,"  he  says,  "  are  in  the  world ;  we  need  only  to 
apply  them.  For  example,  it  is  not  doubted  that  we 
ought  to  risk  our  lives  in  order  to  defend  the  public 
good,  and  many  do  this ;  but  in  the  cause  of  religion, 
not. 

"Reason    commands    us    much     more    imperiously 


1 88  PASCAL 

than  a  master;  for  in  disobeying  the  one  a  man 
is  unfortunate;  in  disobeying  the  other,  he  is  a 
fool."1 

We  have  in  this  Article  a  good  many  statements 
on  the  relation  between  custom  and  justice,  some  of 
which  are  slightly  contradictory.  Generally  speaking, 
Pascal  lays  down  the  principle  that  justice  is  not  an 
abstraction,  but  the  embodiment  of  human  custom. 
"  As  fashion  (la  mode)  makes  agreement,  so  also  it 
makes  justice."  Again,  "Justice  is  that  which  is 
established;  and  thus  all  our  established  laws  will 
necessarily  be  regarded  as  just  without  being  ex- 
amined, since  they  are  established."  In  the  previous 
Article  (v.  4)  he  had  said:  "Why  do  we  follow  the 
majority?  Is  it  because  they  have  more  reason? 
No,  but  more  power." 

Here  again  we  have  some  of  his  utterances  on 
selfishness.  "The  Ego  (Moi)  is  hateful.  ...  In  a 
word,  the  Ego  has  two  qualities ;  it  is  unjust  in  itself, 
in  making  itself  the  centre  of  everything ;  it  is  incon- 
venient to  others,  in  that  it  wishes  to  enslave  them. 
For  every  Ego  is  the  enemy,  and  would  like  to  be  the 
tyrant  of  all  the  rest.  You  may  take  away  its  incon- 
venience, but  not  its  injustice ;  and  thus  you  do  not 
make  it  lovable  to  those  who  hate  injustice ;  you 
make  it  lovable  only  to  the  unjust,  who  find  no  longer 
an  enemy  in  it ;  and  thus  you  remain  unjust,  and  can 
please  only  the  unjust." 

Here  is  a  recurrence  to  his  earlier  teaching  on  the 
dissatisfaction  which  demands  diversion  and  excite- 
ment :  "  In  omnibus  quietem  qucesivi  [Ecclus.  xxiv.  11]. 
If  our  condition  was  truly  happy,  we  should  not  have 
1  The  Port  Royal  edition  strangely  omits  this  section. 


THE  THOUGHTS  189 

to   divert  ourselves  from   thinking  of  it  in  order  to 
render  ourselves  happy." 

The  subject  of  custom  comes  up  again.  He  says: 
"  Montaigne  is  wrong ;  custom  should  be  followed  only 
because  it  is  custom,  and  not  because  it  is  reasonable 
or  just ;  but  people  follow  it  for  this  sole  reason,  that 
they  believe  it  to  be  just.  If  not,  they  would  not 
follow  it,  although  it  were  the  custom ;  for  we  do  not 
like  to  be  subject  except  to  reason  or  to  justice. 
Custom  without  that  would  pass  for  tyranny ;  but  the 
empire  of  reason  and  justice  is  not  more  tyrannical  than 
that  of  delight.  They  are  principles  natural  to  man." 

We  are  here  reminded  of  the  question  raised  by 
Aristotle,  whether  men  desire  that  which  is  really 
good,  or  what  seems  to  them  to  be  good;  and  the 
solution  of  the  problem  lies  in  the  same  direction. 
Men  undoubtedly  desire  that  which  seems  to  them  to 
be  good ;  but  they  do  so  on  the  assumption  that  what 
seems  to  them  good  is  really  good.  If  they  had  a 
doubt  on  the  subject,  they  would  not  desire  it.  So 
with  regard  to  the  obligation  of  law.  Men  keep  the 
laws  because  they  are  imposed  by  the  society  in  which 
they  live ;  but  they  assume  that  the  laws  are  imposed 
because  they  are  just. 

Pascal  goes  on:  "It  is  dangerous  to  say  to  people 
that  the  laws  are  not  just ;  for  they  obey  them  only 
because  they  think  them  just.  And  that  is  why  they 
should  be  told  at  the  same  time  that  they  should  obey 
them  because  they  are  laws,  just  as  they  ought  to  obey  * 
their  superiors  not  because  they  are  just,  but  because 
they  are  superiors.  In  that  way  all  sedition  is  pre- 
vented if  this  can  be  made  intelligible,  and  this  is  the 
proper  idea  of  justice," 


190  PASCAL 

And  here  comes  in  a  paragraph  part  of  which  is  too 
well  known  to  be  omitted  in  this  place:  "Anyone 
who  wishes  to  know  fully  the  vanity  of  man  has  only 
to  consider  the  causes  and  the  effects  of  love.  The 
cause  of  it  is  'a  something,  I  know  not  what,' l  and 
the  effects  of  it  are  frightful.  This  '  I  know  not  what/ 
so  small  a  thing  as  hardly  to  be  recognisable,  moves 
the  whole  earth,  princes,  armies,  the  entire  world. 
Cleopatra's  nose — if  it  had  been  shorter,  the  whole  face 
of  the  world  would  have  changed." 

Philosophy  and  Literature 

In  the  seventh  Article,  which  treats  of  Philosophy 
and  Literature,  there  are  some  striking  thoughts. 
Thus:  "Man  is  neither  an  angel  nor  a  beast,  and 
unfortunately  one  who  tries  to  be  an  angel  makes 
himself  a  beast."  This  thought  comes  from  Montaigne 
(iii.  13) :  "  They  want  to  put  themselves  outside  them- 
selves and  escape  from  being  men.  It  is  folly.  Instead 
of  transforming  themselves  into  angels,  they  transform 
themselves  into  beasts.  Instead  of  raising  themselves, 
they  lower  themselves." 

"The  heart  has  its  order;  the  mind  has  its  own, 
which  goes  by  principle  and  demonstration.  The 
heart  has  another.  We  do  not  prove  that  we  ought 
to  be  loved  when  we  set  forth  the  causes  of  love ;  that 
would  be  ridiculous.  Jesus  Christ  and  St.  Paul  have 
the  order  of  charity,  not  of  intellect ;  for  their  purpose 
was  to  warn,  not  to  instruct.  So  with  St.  Augustine. 
This  order  consists  principally  in  digression  at  each 
point.  Let  us  have  reference  to  the  end  so  as  to  keep 
it  always  in  view.  .  .  .  All  the  false  beauties  which 
1  Je  ne  sais  quoi.  Of.  Corneille,  Rodogune,  i.  5  ;  and  Medte,  ii.  6. 


THE  THOUGHTS  191 

we  blame  in  Cicero  have  admirers,  and  these  in  great 
number.  .  .  . 

"  To  make  sport  of  philosophy  is  truly  to  philoso- 
phise." 

Contradictions  in  Man 

The  eighth  Article  deals  with  the  "  astonishing  con- 
tradictions which  are  found  in  the  nature  of  man  with 
regard  to  truth,  happiness,  and  several  other  things." 
It  is  here  that  we  meet  with  some  of  those  utterances 
which  have  brought  upon  Pascal  the  charge  of  Pyr- 
rhonism. After  speaking  of  the  two  extremes  of 
Pyrrhonism  and  Dogmatism,  he  goes  on :  "  What  then 
shall  man  do  in  this  condition?  Shall  he  doubt  of 
everything  ?  Shall  he  doubt  if  he  is  awake,  if  he  is 
pinched,  if  he  is  burnt  ?  Shall  he  doubt  if  he  doubts  ? 
Shall  he  doubt  if  he  exists  ?  It  is  hardly  possible  to 
go  so  far ;  and  I  lay  it  down  as  a  fact  that  there  never 
has  been  a  perfect  and  effective  Pyrrhonist.  Nature 
sustains  impotent  reason,  and  hinders  it  from  carrying 
its  extravagance  so  far.  Shall  a  man  then  say,  on  the 
contrary,  that  he  certainly  possesses  truth — he  who, 
when  pushed  but  a  little,  can  show  no  proof  of  it,  and 
is  forced  to  let  go  his  hold.  What  a  chimera,  then,  is 
man !  what  a  novelty !  what  a  monster,  what  chaos, 
what  subject  of  contradiction,  what  a  prodigy !  Judge 
of  all  things,  imbecile  worm  of  the  earth ;  depositary 
of  truth,  common  sewer  of  uncertainty  and  error; 
glory  and  refuse  of  the  world  !  Who  will  disentangle 
this  confusion?  Nature  confounds  the  Pyrrhonists, 
and  reason  confounds  the  Dogmatists.  What  will  you 
become,  O  man,  who  seek  to  understand  your  true 
condition  by  your  natural  reason  ?  You  cannot  escape 


192  PASCAL 

one  or  other  of  these  sects,  nor  subsist  in  either. 
Know,  then,  proud  man,  what  a  paradox  you  are  to 
yourself.  Humble  yourself,  impotent  reason ;  be  silent, 
imbecile  nature ;  learn  that  man  infinitely  transcends 
man,1  and  hear  from  your  master  your  true  condition 
of  which  you  are  ignorant.  Listen  to  God. 

"  For,  in  short,  if  man  had  never  been  corrupted,  he 
would  enjoy  in  his  innocence  both  truth  and  felicity 
with  assurance.  And  if  man  had  been  nothing  else 
but  corrupted,  he  would  have  no  idea  either  of  truth 
or  of  beatitude.  But,  unhappy  that  we  are,  and  more 
so  than  if  there  had  been  no  greatness  in  our  con- 
dition, we  have  an  idea  of  happiness  and  cannot  attain 
to  it.  We  perceive  an  image  of  truth,  and  possess  only 
falsehood.  Incapable  of  being  absolutely  ignorant,  and 
of  knowing  with  certainty — thus  is  it  manifest  that 
we  have  been  in  a  degree  of  perfection  from  which 
we  have  unfortunately  fallen. 

"  Astonishing,  however,  it  is  that  the  mystery  which 
is  furthest  removed  from  our  knowledge — that  of  the 
transmission  of  sin — is  a  fact  without  which  we  cannot 
have  any  knowledge  of  ourselves !  For  it  is  beyond 
a  doubt  that  there  is  nothing  which  gives  a  greater 
shock  to  our  reason  than  to  say  that  the  sin  of  the 
first  man  has  rendered  guilty  those  who,  being  so  far 
removed  from  this  source,  seem  incapable  of  partici- 
pating in  it.  This  devolution  seems  to  us  not  merely 
impossible,  it  seems  to  us  even  unjust;  for  what  is 
there  more  contrary  to  the  rules  of  our  miserable  justice 
than  to  condemn  eternally  an  infant  incapable  of  voli- 

1  Compare  the  lines  of  Daniel — 

"Unless  above  himself  he  can 
Erect  himself,  how  poor  a  thing  is  man ! " 


THE  THOUGHTS  193 

tion  for  a  sin  in  which  it  seems  to  have  so  little  part 
that  it  was  committed  six  thousand  years  before  it 
came  into  being  ?  Certainly  nothing  offends  us  more 
violently  than  this  doctrine;  and  yet,  without  this 
mystery,  the  most  incomprehensible  of  all,  we  are  in- 
comprehensible to  ourselves.  The  knotty  point  of  our 
condition  takes  its  windings  and  its  turnings  in  this 
abyss,  so  that  man  is  more  inconceivable  without  this 
mystery  than  this  mystery  is  inconceivable  to  man." 
Again  he  says :  "  If  man  is  not  made  for  God,  why  is 
it  that  he  is  not  happy  except  in  God?  If  man  is 
made  for  God,  why  is  he  so  contrary  to  God?" 
Again :  "  Man  knows  not  in  what  rank  to  place  him- 
self. He  has  visibly  gone  astray  and  fallen  from  his 
true  place  without  being  able  to  find  it  again.  He 
seeks  for  it  everywhere  with  disquiet  and  without 
success  in  impenetrable  darkness." 

Necessity  of  studying  Religion 

Under  Article  ix.  there  are  passages  of  deep  in- 
terest but  of  somewhat  too  great  length  to  be  intro- 
duced here ;  we  must  therefore  be  contented  with 
extracts.  Speaking  of  the  antagonists  of  religion, 
Pascal  remarks :  "  Let  them  at  least  learn  the  nature 
of  the  religion  which  they  combat  before  combating 
it.  If  this  religion  were  to  boast  of  having  a  clear 
view  of  God  and  of  possessing  it  clear  and  unveiled, 
it  would  be  in  opposition  to  this  to  say  that  we  see 
nothing  in  the  world  which  shows  it  with  this  clearness. 
But  when,  on  the  contrary,  it  says  that  men  are  in 
darkness  and  far  from  God,  that  He  is  hid  from  their 
knowledge,  that  this  is,  in  fact,  the  name  which  He 


194  PASCAL 

gives  Himself  in  the  Scriptures,  Deus  Absconditus  ("  A 
God  that  hidest  Thyself,"  Isa.  xlv.  15) ;  and,  finally,  if 
it  labours  equally  to  establish  these  two  things :  that 
God  has  established  sensible  works  in  the  Church  in 
order  to  make  Himself  known  to  those  who  should 
seek  Him  sincerely,  and  that  nevertheless  He  has 
covered  them  in  such  a  manner  that  He  will  be 
perceived  only  by  those  who  seek  Him  with  their 
whole  heart;  what  advantage  will  they  derive  when, 
in  the  negligence  with  which  they  make  profession  of 
being  in  search  of  the  truth,  they  cry  out  that  nothing 
shows  it  to  them ;  since  this  obscurity  in  which  they  are 
involved,  and  with  which  they  reproach  the  Church, 
establishes  only  one  of  the  things  which  the  Church 
sustains  without  touching  the  other,  and  is  so  far  from 
overthrowing  its  doctrine  that  it  establishes  it  ?  ... 

"  After  that  they  boast  of  having  sought  without 
success  in  books  and  among  men.  But,  in  truth,  I 
should  say  to  them  that  which  I  have  often  said,  that 
this  negligence  is  intolerable.  We  are  not  here  con- 
cerned with  some  trifling  interest  which  concerns  a 
stranger,  so  that  we  might  justify  such  a  mode  of 
treatment ;  this  concerns  ourselves,  and  ourselves  alto- 
gether. 

"The  immortality  of  the  soul  is  a  thing  which 
means  so  much  to  us,  which  touches  us  so  profoundly, 
that  we  must  have  lost  all  feeling  to  be  indifferent  on 
such  a  subject.  All  our  actions  and  our  thoughts  must 
take  a  direction  so  different,  according  as  there  are 
eternal  blessings  to  hope  for  or  not.  So  that  it  is 
impossible  to  go  forward  with  sense  and  judgment 
unless  we  regulate  our  course  by  our  view  of  this  point 
which  ought  to  be  our  final  object." 


THE  THOUGHTS  195 

Passing  on  from  those  who  regard  these  questions 
with  indifference,  he  comes  to  a  different  class :  "  I  can 
have  only  compassion  for  those  who  mourn  sincerely 
in  this  doubt,  who  regard  it  as  the  last  of  misfortunes, 
and  who,  sparing  no  pains  to  escape  from  it,  make  of 
this  inquiry  their  principal  and  most  serious  occupa- 
tions. But,"  he  goes  on,  "  for  those  who  pass  their  life 
without  thinking  of  this  last  end  of  life,  and  who,  for 
this  sole  reason  that  they  do  not  find  in  themselves 
the  lights  which  persuade  them  of  it,  neglect  to  seek 
them  elsewhere,  and  to  examine  to  the  very  foundation 
whether  this  opinion  is  one  of  those  which  people 
receive  with  a  simple  credulity,  or  one  of  those  which, 
though  obscure  in  themselves,  have  nevertheless  a 
very  solid  and  immovable  foundation,  I  consider  them 
in  a  manner  quite  different." 

In  a  striking  passage  he  sets  forth  the  opinions  of 
the  unbeliever,  and  then  comments  upon  them.  "I 
know  not,"  says  the  sceptic,  "  who  placed  me  in  the 
world,  nor  what  the  world  is,  nor  myself.  I  am  in 
terrible  ignorance  of  all  things.  I  do  not  know 
the  nature  of  my  body,  nor  of  my  senses,  nor  of  my 
soul,  nor  of  that  part  of  me  which  thinks  what  I 
say,  which  makes  reflections  on  everything  and  on 
itself,  and  knows  itself  no  more  than  the  rest.  ...  As 
I  know  not  whence  I  come,  so  neither  do  I  know 
whither  I  go.  I  know  only  that,  in  leaving  this  world, 
I  fall  for  ever  either  into  annihilation,  or  into  the 
hands  of  an  angry  God.  .  .  .  And  from  all  this  I  con- 
clude that  I  should  pass  all  the  days  of  my  life  with- 
out caring  to  inquire  what  is  going  to  happen  to  me," 
and  so  forth. 

To  all  which  Pascal  replies :  "  Who  would  wish  to 


196  PASCAL 

have  as  a  friend  a  man  who  discourses  in  that  manner  ? 
Who  would  choose  him  out  from  others  in  order  to  tell 
him  of  his  affairs  ?  Who  would  have  recourse  to  him 
in  his  afflictions  ?  And,  in  short,  of  what  service  could 
such  a  one  be  in  life  ? 

"In  truth  it  is  the  glory  of  religion  to  have  for 
enemies  men  so  unreasonable;  and  their  opposition 
to  it  is  so  little  dangerous,  that,  on  the  contrary,  it 
serves  for  the  establishment  of  its  truths.  For  the 
Christian  faith  principally  establishes  these  two  things, 
the  corruption  of  nature  and  the  redemption  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Now,  I  maintain  that  if  those  men  do  not 
serve  to  show  the  truth  of  redemption  by  the  holiness 
of  their  manners,  they  serve  at  least  admirably  to 
show  the  corruption  of  nature  by  sentiments  so  un-' 
natural.  .  .  . 

"  Nothing  proves  more  powerfully  an  extreme  weak- 
ness of  mind  than  to  be  ignorant  of  the  misery  of  a 
man  without  God ;  nothing  indicates  more  clearly  an  evil 
disposition  of  heart  than  not  to  wish  that  the  eternal 
promises  were  true ;  nothing  is  more  cowardly  than  to 
be  brave  in  opposition  to  God.  Let  them,  then,  leave 
those  impieties  to  those  who  are  so  badly  born  as  to 
be  truly  capable  of  them ;  let  them  at  least  be  honest 
men  if  they  cannot  be  Christians,  and  let  them  recog- 
nise at  last  that  there  are  only  two  sorts  of  persons 
that  can  be  called  reasonable:  either  those  who  serve 
God  with  all  their  heart  because  they  know  Him,  or 
those  who  seek  Him  with  all  their  heart  because  they 
do  not  know  Him. 

"But  as  for  those  who  live  without  knowing  Him 
and  without  seeking  Him,  they  judge  themselves  so 
little  worthy  of  their  own  care  that  they  are  not 


THE  THOUGHTS  197 

worthy  of  the  care  of  others ;  and  one  would  need  to 
have  all  the  charity  of  the  religion  which  they  despise 
in  order  not  to  despise  them  even  to  the  point  of  aban- 
doning them  to  their  folly.  But  because  this  religion 
obliges  us  to  believe  that  as  long  as  they  live  they  are 
capable  of  the  grace  which  may  enlighten  them,  and 
that  they  may,  in  a  short  time,  be  more  replenished 
with  faith  than  ourselves,  and  that,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  is  possible  for  us  to  fall  into  their  blindness, 
we  are  bound  to  do  for  them  that  which  we  should 
wish  them  to  do  for  us  if  we  were  in  their  place, 
and  to  implore  them  to  have  pity  upon  themselves,  ' 
and  at  least  to  take  some  steps  in  the  endeavour 
to  find  light." 

It  is  better  to  believe  when  we  cannot  prove 

The  heading  of  this  section  in  its  complete  form 
runs  as  follows:  "Although  it  might  be  difficult  to 
demonstrate  the  existence  of  God  by  the  light  of 
nature,  the  surest  course  is  to  believe  it."  We  have 
here  Pascal's  theory  of  Tutiorism,  which  he  set  over 
against  the  Jesuit  Probabilism,  or  even  the  modified 
form  of  the  doctrine  known  as  Probabiliorism.  Prob- 
abilism we  have  already  considered  in  connection  with 
the  Provincial  Letters.  Probabiliorism  held  that  we  t 
should  accept  and  act  upon  not  a  merely  probable 
opinion,  that  is  to  say,  an  opinion  supported  by  a  single 
accredited  doctor  of  the  Church,  but  upon  the  more 
probable  opinion,  that  which  has  several  doctors  in  its 
favour  or  other  similar  supports.  The  doctrine  of 
Tutiorism  held  that  a  man  should  accept  the  safer  doc- 
trine ;  for  example,  if  there  should  seem  to  be  a  doubt 


198  PASCAL 

as  to  the  existence  of  God,  a  man  was  safer  who  acted 
as  though  there  were  a  God.  So  with  the  doctrines  of 
the  gospel.  We  can  easily  see  that  there  is  another 
side  to  this  question  without  denying  the  validity  of 
Pascal's  argument.  In  the  present  section  the  subject 
is  not  fully  discussed,  and  we  must  examine  his  writ- 
ings generally  in  order  to  find  his  complete  teaching 
on  the  subject. 

Speaking  here  of  God,  he  says  that  just  as  we 
believe  there  is  an  Infinite  without  our  being  able  to 
describe  its  nature,  so  we  can  quite  understand  that 
there  is  a  God  without  knowing  what  He  is.  "  We 
know  the  existence  of  the  infinite  and  are  ignorant  of 
its  nature,  because  it  has  extension  like  us,  but  not 
boundaries  like  us.  But  we  do  not  know  either  the 
existence  or  the  nature  of  God,  because  He  has  neither 
extension  nor  bounds.  But  by  faith  we  know  His 
existence ;  in  glory  we  know  His  nature.  Now  I 
have  already  shown  that  one  may  well  know  the  exist- 
ence of  a  thing  without  knowing  its  nature.  .  .  .  Who 
then  will  blame  Christians  for  not  being  able  to  give 
a  reason  for  their  belief,  since  they  profess  that  they 
hold  a  religion  of  which  they  are  unable  to  render  a 
reason.  They  declare,  in  explaining  it  to  the  world, 
that  it  is  'foolishness'  [1  Cor.  i.  19],  and  yet  you 
complain  that  they  do  not  prove  it.  If  they  proved  it 
they  would  not  keep  their  word  ;  it  is  in  lacking  proofs 
that  they  are  not  lacking  in  sense.  .  .  . 

"You  have  two  things  to  lose,  the  true  and  the 
good ;  and  two  things  to  stake,  your  reason  and  your 
will,  your  knowledge  and  your  blessedness ;  and  your 
nature  has  two  things  to  flee  from,  error  and  misery. 
Your  reason  is  no  more  wounded  in  choosing  the  one 


THE  THOUGHTS  199 

than  the  other,  since  you  must  necessarily  make  a 
choice.  There  is  one  point  settled.  But  your  blessed- 
ness ?  Let  us  weigh  the  gain  and  the  loss  in  wagering 
that  God  is.  Let  us  estimate  these  two  chances :  if 
you  gain,  you  gain  everything;  if  you  lose,  you  lose 
nothing.  Wager,  then,  without  hesitation  that  He 
exists. — That  is  admirable :  yes,  we  must  wager ;  but 
perhaps  I  wager  too  much. — Let  us  see.  Since  there 
is  equal  risk  of  gain  and  of  loss,  if  you  had  only  to 
gain  two  lives  for  one,  you  might  still  wager.  But  if 
there  are  three  lives  to  gain,  you  must  needs  play  (since 
you  are  under  the  necessity  of  playing) ;  and  you  would 
be  imprudent,  when  you  are  under  the  necessity  of 
playing,  not  to  hazard  your  life  in  order  to  gain  three 
at  one  cast  when  there  is  equal  risk  of  loss  and 
gain."  .  .  . 

He  afterwards  gives  another  reason  for  acting  on 
the  principles  of  faith  even  when  one  does  not  actually  f 
believe.  "  Learn  at  least  your  inability  to  believe,  since 
reason  carries  you  to  this,  and  that  nevertheless  you 
are  unable  to  believe.  Strive,  then,  to  convince  your- 
self not  by  heaping  up  proofs  of  the  existence  of  God, ' 
but  by  the  abatement  of  your  passions.  You  would 
like  to  attain  to  faith,  and  you  do  not  know  the  way ; 
you  would  like  to  heal  yourself  of  unbelief,  and  you 
ask  for  the  remedy;  learn  of  those  who  have  been 
bound  as  you  are,  and  who  now  wager  all  that  they 
possess.  These  are  men  who  know  the  path  which 
you  would  follow,  and  who  are  cured  of  the  malady 
of  which  you  want  to  be  cured.  Follow  the  way 
by  which  they  began;  they  lived  as  though  they 
believed.  By  such  means  you  will  come  to  believe.  .  .  . 
What  have  you  to  lose  ? 


200  PASCAL 

"  Now,  what  harm  will  befall  you  if  you  take  this 
side  ?  You  will  be  faithful,  virtuous,  humble,  grateful, 
beneficent,  a  sincere  friend,  truthful.  Certainly  you 
will  not  have  tainted  pleasures,  or  glory,  or  delights- 
But  will  you  not  have  other  pleasures? — I  tell  you 
that  you  will  have  gain  in  this  life,  and  that  at  every 
step  you  take  in  this  way  you  will  see  so  much  of  the 
certainty  of  gain,  and  so  much  of  the  nothingness 
of  that  which  you  risk,  that  you  will  know  in  the  end 
that  you  have  wagered  for  something  certain,  infinite, 
for  which  you  have  given  nothing." 

Again  he  returns  to  his  point,  that,  whilst  faith 
produces  good  deeds,  these  also  have  a  tendency  to 
generate  faith.  "  I  should  soon  have  quitted  pleasures, 
they  say,  if  I  had  faith.  And  I,  on  my  part,  tell  you, 
you  would  soon  have  faith,  if  you  had  quitted  plea- 
sures. Now  it  is  for  you  to  begin.  If  I  could,  I  would 
give  you  faith.  I  cannot  do  this,  nor  therefore  can  I 
prove  the  truth  of  that  which  you  say.  But  you  can 
easily  quit  pleasures  and  prove  whether  that  which  I 
say  is  true." 

Over  against  these  practical  ways  of  attaining  to  faith 
he  places  the  futility  of  abstract  arguments.  "  The 
metaphysical  proofs  of  God,"  he  says,  "  are  so  remote 
from  the  reasoning  of  men,  and  so  involved,  that  they 
make  but  little  impression ;  and  even  if  that  kind  of 
argument  should  serve  some,  it  would  do  so  only  whilst 
they  considered  the  demonstration ;  but  an  hour  after- 
wards they  would  fear  that  they  had  been  deceived." 
These  are  prominent  thoughts  with  Pascal,  and  remind 
us  of  the  language  of  Anselm.  "  I  do  not  ask  to  under- 
stand that  I  may  believe,  but  I  believe  that  I  may 
understand." 


THE  THOUGHTS  201 

Nature  and  Marks  of  Religion 

The  Articles  following  (xi.  xii.)  deal  with  the  nature 
and  characteristics  of  religion.  The  former  deals  with 
the  "  marks  of  the  true  religion.  "  The  true  religion," 
he  says,  "  should  have  as  its  mark,  that  it  obliges  one 
to  love  his  God.  That  is  most  just ;  and  yet  there  is 
no  other  religion  which  has  required  it ;  ours  has.  So 
also  the  true  religion  should  recognise  concupiscence  and 
impotence  in  man;  ours  has  done  so.  It  should  also 
have  supplied  remedies;  one  of  these  is  prayer.  No 
other  religion  has  asked  of  God  that  we  might  love 
Him  and  follow  Him.  .  .  . 

"  In  order  that  a  religion  may  be  true,  it  must  have 
known  our  nature.  It  must  have  known  its  greatness 
and  its  littleness,  and  the  reason  of  both.  What 
religion  has  known  this  but  the  Christian  ? 

"The  heathen  religions  are  more  popular,  for  they 
are  external;  but  they  are  not  adapted  for  more 
enlightened  men.  For  such  a  religion  purely  intel- 
lectual would  be  better  adapted ;  but  it  would  be  of  no 
use  to  the  common  people.  The  Christian  religion 
alone  is  adapted  for  all,  being  both  external  and 
internal.  It  lifts  up  the  common  people  to  the  in- 
ternal, and  it  humbles  the  proud  to  the  external ;  and 
it  is  not  perfect  without  the  two :  for  it  is  necessary 
that  the  common  people  should  understand  the  spirit 
of  the  letter,  and  that  the  more  enlightened  should 
submit  their  mind  to  the  letter. 

"The  external  should  be  joined  to  the  internal  in 
order  to  obtain  from  God ;  that  is  to  say,  one  should 
kneel,  pray  with  his  lips,  etc.  ...  so  that  the  proud 
man,  who  has  not  been  willing  to  submit  himself  to 


202  PASCAL 

God,  may  now  be  submissive  to  the  creature  [that  is, 
to  the  body].  To  expect  succour  from  this  external  is 
to  be  superstitious ;  to  be  unwilling  to  connect  it  with 
the  interior  is  to  be  proud. 

"No  other  religion  has  proposed  to  man  to  hate 
himself.  No  other  religion,  therefore,  can  please  those 
who  hate  themselves,  and  who  seek  a  Being  truly 
lovable.  And  these,  if  they  had  never  before  heard  of 
the  religion  of  a  God  humiliated,  would  embrace  it  at 
once.  .  .  . 

"  No  religion  but  ours  has  taught  that  man  is  born 
in  sin,  no  sect  of  philosophers  has  said  it ;  none,  there- 
fore, has  spoken  the  truth.  .  .  . 

"  This  religion,  which  consists  in  believing  that  man 
is  fallen  from  a  state  of  glory  and  of  communion  with 
God  into  a  state  of  sadness,  penitence,  and  estrange- 
ment from  God,  but  that,  after  this  life,  we  shall  be 
re-established  by  a  Messiah  who  is  to  come, — this 
religion  has  always  been  on  the  earth.  All  things 
have  passed  away,  but  this  has  subsisted  for  which  all 
things  exist.  .  .  . 

"The  only  religion  which  is  opposed  to  nature, 
opposed  to  common  sense,  opposed  to  our  pleasures,  is 
the  only  religion  which  has  always  existed. 

"The  greatnesses  and  the  miseries  of  man  are  so 
visible  that  it  is  of  necessity  that  the  true  religion 
should  teach  us,  both  that  there  is  some  great  principle 
of  greatness  in  man,  and  also  that  there  is  a  great 
principle  of  misery.  It  must  therefore  give  us  a 
reason  for  these  astonishing  contradictions. 

"  In  order  to  make  man  happy,  religion  must  show 
him  that  there  is  a  God;  that  we  are  bound  to  love 
Him ;  that  it  is  our  true  happiness  to  be  in  Him,  and 


THE  THOUGHTS  203 

our  only  misfortune  to  be  separated  from  Him.  It 
must  also  recognise  the  fact  that  we  are  full  of  dark- 
ness, which  hinders  us  from  knowing  Him  and  loving 
Him ;  and  that  thus  our  duties  require  us  to  love  God, 
and  our  lusts  turn  us  away  from  Him,  so  that  we  are 
full  of  unrighteousness.  Religion  must  explain  these 
oppositions  within  us  to  God  and  to  our  true  good.  It 
must  teach  us  the  remedies  for  these  impotences,  and 
the  means  of  obtaining  these  remedies.  Let  us  ex- 
amine, in  this  regard,  all  the  religions  in  the  world,  and 
let  us  see  whether  there  is  any  other  than  the  Chris- 
tian religion  that  would  yield  satisfaction.  .  .  . 

"  What  religion  will  teach  us,  then,  to  cure  our  pride 
and  our  lust  ?  What  religion,  in  short,  will  teach  us 
our  good,  our  duties,  the  weaknesses  which  turn  us 
away  from  them,  the  cause  of  these  weaknesses,  the 
remedies  which  can  cure  them,  and  the  means  of 
obtaining  these  remedies  ?  None  of  the  other  religions 
can  do  this.  Let  us  see  what  the  Wisdom  of  God  will 
do." 

Here  speaks  the  Voice  of  Wisdom,  which  is  identical 
with  the  Eternal  Word :  "  It  is  in  vain,  0  men,  that 
you  seek  in  yourselves  the  remedy  for  your  miseries. 
All  your  lights  can  only  succeed  in  making  you  know 
that  it  is  not  in  yourselves  that  you  will  find  either 
Truth  or  Good.  The  philosophers  have  promised  this 
to  you,  but  they  cannot  give  it.  They  know  neither 
what  is  your  true  Good,  nor  what  is  your  true  state 
How  should  they  have  given  you  remedies  for  your 
Evils  which  they  have  not  even  known  ?  Your  princi- 
pal maladies  are  pride,  which  separates  you  from  God ; 
lust,  which  makes  you  cleave  to  the  earth ;  and  they 
have  not  got  beyond  entertaining  one  of  these 


204  PASCAL 

maladies.1  If  they  have  given  you  God  as  your  object, 
it  has  only  been  to  exercise  your  pride;  they  have 
made  you  think  that  you  were  like  to  Him,  and  by 
nature  conformed  to  Him.  And  those  who  have  seen 
the  vanity  of  this  pretension  have  cast  you  over  the 
other  precipice,  by  making  you  believe  that  your 
nature  was  akin  to  that  of  the  beasts,  and  have  led 
you  to  seek  for  your  happiness  in  the  lusts  which  you 
share  with  the  animals.  That  is  not  the  way  to  heal 
you  of  your  unrighteousnesses  which  those  sages  have 
not  known  ? 

"  If  there  is  one  sole  principle  of  all,  one  sole  end  of 
all,  then  all  is  by  Him,  all  for  Him.  In  that  case  the 
true  religion  must  teach  us  to  adore  only  Him,  and  to 
love  none  but  Him.  But,  as  it  is  impossible  for  us  to 
adore  that  which  we  do  not  know,  and  to  love  any- 
thing but  ourselves,  religion  which  instructs  us  in 
these  duties  must  also  instruct  us  in  respect  to  these 
impotences,  and  must  also  teach  us  the  remedies.  It 
teaches  us  that  by  one  man  all  has  been  lost,  and  the 
connection  between  God  and  ourselves  broken;  and, 
further,  that  by  One  Man  the  connection  is  repaired. 
We  are  born  so  opposed  to  this  love  of  God,  and  it  is 
so  necessary,  that  we  must  needs  be  born  in  guilt,  or 
God  would  be  unjust.  .  .  . 

"Christianity  is  strange!  It  orders  man  to  re- 
cognise that  he  is  vile,  and  even  abominable,  and  it 
bids  him  wish  to  be  like  to  God.  Without  such  a 
counterpoise,  this  elevation  would  render  him  horribly 
vain,  or  this  abasement  would  render  him  terribly 
abject. 

"  Misery  counsels  despair ;  pride  counsels  presump- 

1  The  Stoics  pride  and  the  Epicureans  lust. 


THE  THOUGHTS  205 

tion.  The  Incarnation  shows  to  man  the  greatness 
of  his  misery  by  the  greatness  of  the  remedy  which 
has  been  necessary." 

Impotence  of  Reason :  Study  of  the  Scriptures 

Pascal  dwells  with  emphasis  upon  man's  inability  to 
discover  God,  and  on  the  need  of  the  Scriptures  and 
the  miracles  recorded  there,  in  order  to  bring  convic- 
tion of  the  truth  of  the  gospel.  So  in  Article  xiii.  he 
dwells  upon  the  "  submission  and  use  of  reason  " ;  after 
which  he  takes  up  the  case  of  one  (xiv.)  who  abandons 
this  way  and  begins  to  read  the  Scriptures.  In  doing 
this  he  considers  (xv.)  the  history  of  the  Jews,  next 
(xvi.)  the  typical  character  of  the  Ancient  Law ;  from 
which  he  proceeds  (xvii.)  to  the  great  subject  of  Jesus 
Christ,  entering  upon  the  various  proofs  of  His  mission 
and  character  (xviii.  and  xix.).  It  may  be  well,  before 
noting  the  concluding  Articles,  to  give  some  extracts 
from  the  portion  now  described. 

Speaking  of  reason,  he  says :  "  The  last  proceeding 
of  reason  is  to  acknowledge  that  there  is  an  infinity 
of  things  which  surpass  it.  It  is  but  weak,  if  it  does 
not  attain  to  such  knowledge.  But  if  natural  things 
surpass  it,  what  shall  we  say  of  the  supernatural  ? " 

Again :  "  The  submission  and  the  use  of  reason ;  in 
this  consists  true  Christianity.  If  we  submit  all  to 
reason,  our  religion  will  have  nothing  mysterious  and 
supernatural  in  it.  If  we  offend  the  principles  of  reason, 
our  religion  will  be  absurd  and  ridiculous.  St.  Augus- 
tine says :  '  Reason  would  never  submit,  if  it  did  not 
judge  that  there  are  occasions  when  it  ought  to  submit. 
It  is  then  right  that  it  should  submit  when  it  judges 


206  PASCAL 

that  it  ought  to  submit.' — Piety  is  different  from  super- 
stition. To  carry  piety  on  to  superstition  is  to  destroy 
it.  Heretics  accuse  us  of  this  superstitious  submission. 
This  is  to  do  the  very  thing  of  which  they  accuse  us." 

Here  again  are  words  worthy  of  being  weighed  at 
all  times.  He  is  dealing  with  those  who  demand  a 
miracle  in  order  that  they  may  believe.  "If  I  had 
seen  a  miracle,  they  say,  I  should  be  converted.  How 
do  they  assure  themselves  that  they  would  do  a  thing 
of  the  nature  of  which  they  are  ignorant?  They 
imagine  that  this  conversion  consists  in  an  adoration 
of  God  which  is  a  kind  of  commerce,  and  in  a  com- 
munion such  as  they  fancy  it.  True  conversion  con- 
sists in  annihilating  oneself  before  this  Universal 
Being,  whom  one  has  displeased  so  often,  and  who 
might  lawfully  destroy  us  at  any  moment ;  in  acknow- 
ledging that  we  can  do  nothing  without  Him;  and 
that  we  have  deserved  nothing  at  His  hands  but  His 
displeasure.  It  consists  in  knowing  that  there  is  an 
invincible  opposition  between  God  and  ourselves ;  and 
that  without  a  mediator,  we  could  have  no  communion 
with  Him." 

Passing  on  to  the  need  of  the  Scriptures  (xiv.),  he 
says  :  "  We  have  pleasure  in  the  society  of  others  like 
ourselves.  Miserable  as  we  are,  impotent  as  we  are, 
they  will  not  help  us ;  we  shall  die  alone.  We  should 
therefore  act  as  if  we  were  alone;  and  in  that  case, 
should  we  build  grand  houses  and  the  like?  We 
should  seek  truth  without  hesitation;  and  if  we  re- 
jected it,  we  should  show  that  we  valued  the  esteem  of 
man  more  than  the  search  for  truth." 

Taking  up  his  Bible  he  finds  (xv.)  that  "the 
Christian  religion  is  founded  upon  a  preceding  reli- 


THE  THOUGHTS  207 

gion  "  ;  and  this  religion  he  finds  very  impressive.  It 
is  of  one  family,  it  is  of  great  antiquity,  it  is  singular 
in  its  duration.  It  has  the  most  ancient  law  in  the 
world,  and  it  preserves  books  which,  by  their  testi- 
mony, condemn  the  people  who  preserve  them. 

In  the  fulness  of  time  Jesus  Christ  came,  but  not 
in  the  earthly  splendour  expected  by  His  countrymen. 
"  The  Jews,"  he  says,  "  so  loved  the  figures  that  they 
misunderstood  the  reality,  even  though  it  came  at  the 
time  and  in  the  manner  predicted." 

"The  Messiah,  according  to  the  carnal  Jews,  was 
to  be  a  great  temporal  Prince;  according  to  carnal 
Christians,1  He  is  come  to  dispense  us  from  loving 
God,  and  to  give  us  sacraments  which  operate  entirely 
without  us.  Neither  the  one  nor  the  other  is  the 
Christian  religion  nor  the  Jewish.  True  Jews  and 
true  Christians  have  always  expected  a  Messiah  who 
would  make  them  love  God,  and  by  this  love  triumph 
over  their  enemies."2 

Pascal,  like  the  Fathers,  finds  types  of  Christ  every- 
where in  the  Old  Testament  (xvi.) :  "  The  letter  kills. 
All  happened  in  figures.  St.  Paul  gives  us  a  key. 
Christ  must  suffer.  A  God  is  humiliated.  Circum- 
cision is  to  be  of  the  heart — true  fasting,  true  sacrifice, 
true  temple.  The  prophets  have  shown  that  all  these 
things  have  a  spiritual  meaning.  .  .  .  Nature  is  an 
image  of  grace,  and  visible  miracles  are  an  image  of 
the  invisible."  He  uses  strong  language :  "  When  the 
Word  of  God,  which  is  true,  is  false  literaUy,  it  is  true 
spiritually.  'Sit  Thou  at  My  right  hand/  That  is 
false  literally;  yet  it  is  true  spiritually.  In  these 

1  An  undoubted  reference  to  the  Jesuits. 

3  Their  spiritual  enemies,  temptations  to  evil. 


208  PASCAL 

expressions  God  is  spoken  of  after  the  manner  of  men ; 
and  this  signifies  only  that  God  has  the  same  kind  of 
intention  which  men  have  when  they  seat  another 
at  their  right  hand.  This,  then,  is  a  mark  of  the 
intention  of  God,  not  of  His  manner  of  executing  it." 

Many  striking  and  beautiful  things  are  said  in  the 
Article  (xvii.)  on  Jesus  Christ,  on  His  lowliness  and 
His  greatness.  "  What  man  ever  had  more  renown  ? 
The  whole  Jewish  people  predict  Him  before  His 
coming.  The  Gentile  people  adore  Him  after  His 
coming.  The  two  peoples,  Gentile  and  Jewish,  regard 
Him  as  their  centre.  And  yet,  what  man  enjoys  this 
renown  less?  Of  thirty-three  years,  He  lives  thirty 
without  appearing.  For  three  years  He  passes  for  an 
impostor ;  the  priests  and  the  chief  of  the  people  reject 
Him ;  His  friends  and  His  nearest  of  kin  despise  Him. 
Finally,  He  dies  betrayed  by  one  of  His  followers, 
denied  by  another,  and  abandoned  by  all.  What  part, 
then,  had  He  in  this  renown  ?  Never  had  man  so  much 
renown;  never  had  man  more  ignominy.  All  that 
renown  has  served  only  for  us  to  render  us  capable  of 
recognising  Him ;  and  He  had  none  of  it  for  Himself. 

"Jesus  Christ  said  great  things  so  simply  that  it 
seems  as  though  He  had  not  thought  them  [to  be 
great] ;  and  yet  so  clearly  that  we  can  easily  see 
what  He  thought  of  them.  This  clearness,  joined 
to  this  simplicity,  is  admirable.  .  .  . 

"  Jesus  Christ  is  a  God  whom  we  approach  without 
pride,1  and  under  whom  we  humble  ourselves  without 
despair." 

In  Article  xviii.  the  evidences  from  the  prophecies 
are  brought  forward,  and  in  the  next  (xix.)  those  from 
1  Unlike  the  Stoics. 


THE  THOUGHTS  209 

the  testimonies  of  the  apostles.  If  these  cannot  be 
depended  upon,  he  argues,  the  apostles  must  have 
been  deceived  or  deceivers.  "  The  supposition  that 
the  apostles  were  impostors  is  very  absurd.  Let  one 
think  it  out;  let  one  imagine  those  twelve  men, 
assembled  after  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ,  plotting 
to  say  that  He  was  risen.  By  this  they  attack  all 
the  powers.  The  heart  of  man  is  strangely  inclined  to 
levity,  to  changes,  to  promises,  to  gains.  However  little 
any  of  them  might  have  been  led  astray  by  such  attrac- 
tions— nay,  more  by  the  fear  of  prisons,  tortures,  and 
death,  they  were  lost.  Let  one  follow  up  this  thought. 
"  The  style  of  the  gospel  is  admirable  in  so  many 
ways,  and  among  the  rest  in  hurling  no  invectives 
against  the  persecutors  and  enemies  of  Jesus  Christ ; 
for  none  such  are  in  any  of  the  historians  levelled 
against  Judas,  Pilate,  or  any  of  the  Jews."  Speaking 
of  the  false  religions  which  confront  Christianity, 
and  specially  of  Mahometanism,  he  remarks:  "Any 
man  can  do  what  Mahomet  did ;  for  he  did  no  miracles, 
he  was  not  foretold.  No  man  can  do  that  which  was 
done  by  Jesus  Christ." 

Divine  concealing  and  revealing 

Our  Lord  spoke  more  than  once  of  the  revealing  of 
truth  to  some  and  concealing  it  from  others;  and 
Pascal  (xx.)  remarks:  "God  has  willed  to  redeem 
men,  and  to  open  the  way  of  salvation  to  those  who 
should  seek  it.  But  men  render  themselves  so  un- 
worthy of  it  that  it  is  right  that  God  should  refuse 
to  some,  because  of  their  obduracy,  that  which  He 
accords  to  others  by  a  compassion  which  is  not  due 
14 


210  PASCAL 

to  them.  If  He  had  willed  to  surmount  the  obstinacy 
of  the  most  hardened,  He  could  have  done  so  by  dis- 
covering Himself  so  manifestly  to  them  that  they 
could  not  have  doubted  of  the  truth  of  His  essence ; 
as  it  will  appear  at  the  last  day,  with  such  thunders 
and  such  overthrow  of  nature,  that  the  dead  will  rise, 
and  the  most  blinded  will  see  it. 

"It  is  not  in  this  manner  that  He  has  willed  to 
appear  in  His  Advent  of  mercy,  because,  since  so 
many  men  rendered  themselves  unworthy  of  His 
clemency,  He  has  willed  to  leave  them  in  the  priva- 
tion of  the  good  which  they  do  not  want.  It  was 
not,  then,  right  that  He  should  appear  in  a  manner 
manifestly  divine,  and  calculated  to  work  absolute 
conviction  in  all  men;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
was  not  right  that  He  should  come  in  a  manner 
so  hidden  that  He  could  not  be  recognised  by  those 
who  should  sincerely  seek  Him.  He  has  willed  tc 
make  Himself  perfectly  recognisable  by  those;  and 
thus,  willing  to  appear  plainly  to  those  who  seek  Him 
with  their  whole  heart,  and  to  remain  concealed  from 
those  who  flee  from  Him  with  their  whole  heart,  He 
so  regulates  His  manner  of  revelation  that  He  has 
given  marks  of  Himself  visible  to  these  who  seel? 
Him,  and  not  to  those  who  do  not  seek  Him.  Then 
is  light  enough  for  those  who  only  desire  to  see,  anc 
enough  of  obscurity  for  those  who  have  a  contrary 
disposition.  There  is  enough  of  clearness  to  enlighter 
the  elect,  and  enough  of  obscurity  to  humble  them 
There  is  enough  of  obscurity  to  blind  the  reprobate 
and  enough  of  clearness  to  condemn  them  and  t< 
render  them  inexcusable." 

The  thought  here  expressed  is  carried  on  throughou 


THE  THOUGHTS  211 

the  fragments  contained  in  this  Article.  Thus  (8): 
"Jesus  Christ  came  to  blind  those  who  see  clearly, 
and  to  give  sight  to  the  blind ;  to  heal  the  sick,  and 
let  the  healthy  die;  to  call  to  repentance  and  to 
justify  sinners,  and  to  leave  the  righteous  in  their 
sins ;  to  fill  the  needy,  and  to  leave  the  rich  empty." 
So  in  the  last  fragment :  "  We  understand  nothing 
in  the  works  of  God,  if  we  do  not  start  from  the 
principle  that  He  has  willed  to  blind  some  and  to 
enlighten  others." 

True  Christians  and  true  Jews  have  the  same 
Religion 

"  The  religion  of  the  Jews  seemed  to  consist  essen- 
tially in  the  paternity  of  Abraham,  in  circumcision,  in 
sacrifices,  in  ceremonies,  in  the  ark,  in  the  temple,  in 
Jerusalem,  and,  finally,  in  the  law  and  in  the  covenant 
of  Moses.  I  say  that  it  consisted  in  none  of  those 
things,  but  only  in  the  love  of  God,  and  that  God  dis- 
regarded all  the  other  things  "  (xxi.).  And  this  thought 
is  worked  out  at  length  in  the  paragraphs  following. 

The  Knowledge  of  God  only  through  Christ 

In  the  beginning  of  this  Article  (xxii.)  Pascal  gives 
an  outline  of  his  plan.     Thus  he  puts  down — 
"  First  Part :  Misery  of  man  without  God. 
Second  Part :  Felicity  of  man  with  God. 
Otherwise.     First  Part :  That  nature  is  corrupt. 

[Proved]  by  nature  itself. 
Second  Part :  That  there  is  a  Restorer. 
[Proved]  by  Scripture." 


212  PASCAL 

Further  on  he  says :  "  The  knowledge  of  God  with- 
out the  knowledge  of  man's  misery  produces  pride. 
The  knowledge  of  his  misery  without  that  of  God 
produces  despair.  The  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ 
produces  the  intermediate,  because  we  there  find  both 
God  and  our  misery. 

"  All  those  who  seek  God  apart  from  Jesus  Christ 
and  who  stay  in  nature,  either  find  no  light  which 
satisfies  them,  or  they  end  by  finding  a  means  of 
knowing  God  and  serving  Him  without  a  Mediator; 
and  in  this  way  they  fall  either  into  Atheism  or  into 
Deism,  two  things  which  are  almost  equally  abhorred 
by  the  Christian  religion. 

"  We  know  God  only  through  Jesus  Christ.  With- 
out this  Mediator  all  communion  with  God  is  taken 
away ;  through  Jesus  Christ  we  know  God.  All  who 
have  pretended  to  know  God  and  to  prove  Him  with- 
out Jesus  Christ  had  only  powerless  proofs.  But  to 
prove  Jesus  Christ,  we  have  the  prophecies,  which  are 
solid  and  palpable  proofs.  And  these  prophecies,  being 
fulfilled  and  proved  true  by  the  event,  mark  the  cer- 
tainty of  these  truths,  and  therefore  the  proof  of  the 
divinity  of  Jesus  Christ.  In  Him  and  by  Him,  then, 
we  know  God.  Apart  from  that  and  without  the 
Scripture,  without  original  sin,  without  a  necessary 
Mediator  promised  and  come,  we  cannot  prove  God 
absolutely,  nor  teach  good  doctrine  or  good  morality. 
But  by  Jesus  Christ  and  in  Jesus  Christ  we  prove 
God,  and  we  teach  morality  and  doctrine.  Jesus 
Christ,  then,  is  the  true  God  of  men. 

"But  we  know  at  the  same  time  our  misery,  for 
this  God  is  no  other  than  our  restorer  from  our  misery. 
Thus  we  cannot  know  God  well  except  in  knowing 


THE  THOUGHTS  213 

our  iniquities.  —  Thus  those  who  have  known  God 
without  knowing  their  misery  have  not  glorified  Him, 
but  have  glorified  themselves.  Quia  non  cognovit 
per  sapientiam,  placuit  Deo  per  stultitiam  prcedica- 
tionis  salvos  facere  [1  Cor.  i.  21]. 

"  Not  only  do  we  know  God  only  by  Jesus  Christ, 
but  we  know  ourselves  only  by  Jesus  Christ.  We 
know  life  and  death  only  through  Jesus  Christ. 
Apart  from  Jesus  Christ,  we  know  not  what  is  our 
life,  nor  what  is  our  death,  nor  what  is  God,  nor  what 
are  we  ourselves.  Thus  without  the  Scriptures,  which 
have  only  Jesus  Christ  for  their  object,  we  know 
nothing,  and  see  only  obscurity  and  confusion  in  the 
nature  of  God  and  in  our  own  nature." 


Thoughts  on  the  Miracles 

Again  and  again  Pascal  returns  to  the  miracles,  and 
in  this  respect  is  perhaps  less  in  harmony  with  existing 
modes  of  thinking  than  in  most  of  his  utterances.  It 
may,  however,  turn  out  that  Pascal  is  nearer  the  truth 
on  this  subject ;  and,  at  anyrate,  he  has  some  admirable 
remarks  on  the  place  of  miracles. 

"Miracles  enable  us  to  discriminate  doctrine,  and 
doctrine  to  discriminate  miracles. — There  are  false 
miracles  and  true.  There  must  be  a  mark  in  order  to 
know  them,  otherwise  they  would  be  useless.  Now 
they  are  not  useless ;  on  the  contrary,  they  are  funda- 
mental. Now  the  rule  which  we  receive1  must  be 
such  that  it  does  not  destroy  the  proof  which  the  true 
miracles  give  of  the  truth,  which  is  the  principal  end 
of  the  miracles.  Moses  gives  two  rules :  When  the 
1  Qu'il  donne— meaning  somewhat  uncertain. 


214  PASCAL 

prediction  is  not  fulfilled  (Deut.  xviii.  22),  the  prophecy 
is  false.  When  they  do  not  lead  to  idolatry  (Deut. 
xiii.  4),  they  are  true.  Jesus  Christ  gives  one  (St.  Mark 
ix.  38)  .  .  .  We  are  to  judge  of  the  doctrine  by  the 
miracles;  and  we  must  judge  of  the  miracles  by  the 
doctrine.  All  that  is  true,  but  there  is  no  contra- 
diction. ...  If  there  were  no  false  miracles  there 
would  be  certainty.  If  there  were  no  rule  to  dis- 
tinguish them,  miracles  would  be  useless,  and  there 
would  be  no  reason  for  believing.  Now  there  is, 
humanly  speaking,  no  human  certainty,  but  we  have 
reason. 

"  There  are  three  marks  of  religion :  Perpetuity  [of 
doctrine],  a  good  life  [in  its  adherents],  and  miracles. 
There  are  those  who  destroy  perpetuity  by  their 
doctrine  of  probability ;  a  good  life  by  their  morals ; 
miracles  by  destroying  either  their  truth  or  the 
inferences  to  be  drawn  from  them.1 


Miscellaneous  Thoughts  on  Religion 

The  last  two  Articles  (xxiv.  and  xxv.)  contain  a 
number  of  fragments  less  easy  to  classify,  the  former 
being  described  as  Pensees  diverses,  and  the  latter 
being  composed  of  Thoughts  published  for  the  first 
time  since  1842.  A  few  of  these  fragments  may  be 
offered  here.  The  first  is  one  which  has  been  often 
quoted : — 

"  The  Heart  has  its  reasons  which  Reason  does  not 
know.  We  see  it  in  a  thousand  things.  I  say  that 
the  heart  naturally  loves  the  Universal  Being,  and 

1  Reference  to  Jesuits.  See  Provincial  Letters,  particularly  the 
fifth. 


THE  THOUGHTS  215 

also  itself  naturally,  according  as  it  is  addicted  to  the 
one  or  the  other ;  and  it  hardens  itself  against  the  one 
or  the  other  according  to  its  choice.  You  have  rejected 
the  one  and  maintained  the  other.  Is  it  by  reason  that 
you  love  ?  It  is  the  heart  which  feels  God,  and  not 
the  reason.  This  is  what  we  mean  by  Faith — God 
sensible  to  the  heart,  not  to  the  reason. 

"There  are  two  ways  of  convincing  men  of  the 
truths  of  our  religion  :  the  one  by  the  power  of  reason, 
the  other  by  the  authority  of  the  speaker.  People 
do  not  make  use  of  the  latter,  but  of  the  former.  They 
do  not  say :  You  must  believe  this,  because  the 
Scripture  which  says  it  is  divine ;  but  they  say :  You 
must  believe  for  such  or  such  a  reason, — and  these  are 
feeble  arguments,  reason  being  always  flexible."  Here 
we  have  one  of  Pascal's  favourite  contentions  —  the 
insufficiency  of  reason.  It  is  not  quite  agreed  as  to 
the  class  of  persons  here  intended.  Possibly  Montaigne 
was  in  his  mind;  but  there  can  hardly  be  a  doubt 
that,  in  part  at  least,  he  was  thinking  of  Descartes. 

•'  Religion  is  a  thing  so  great  that  it  is  right  that 
those  who  will  not  take  the  trouble  to  inquire  into  it 
because  it  is  obscure,  should  be  deprived  of  it.  What 
do  they  complain  of,  then,  if  it  is  of  such  a  nature 
that  they  could  find  it  out  by  inquiring  into  it  ?  ... 

"  The  Prophecies,  even  the  miracles  and  the  proofs 
of  our  religion,  are  not  of  such  a  nature  that  we  can 
say  they  are  absolutely  convincing.  But  they  are 
also  of  such  a  kind  that  we  could  not  be  said  to  be 
without  reason  in  believing  them.  Thus  there  is  both 

O 

evidence  and  obscurity  sufficient  to  enlighten  one  class 
and  to  darken  the  other.  But  the  evidence  is  of  such 
force  that  it  surpasses,  or  at  least  equals,  the  evidence 


216  PASCAL 

on  the  other  side ;  so  that  it  is  not  reason  which  can 
determine  us  not  to  follow  religion;  and  thus  it  can 
only  be  the  lust  and  malice  of  the  heart.  And  by  this 
means  there  is  enough  evidence  to  condemn  and  not 
enough  to  convince ;  so  that  it  is  manifest  that,  in 
those  who  follow  it,  it  is  grace  and  not  reason  that 
makes  them  follow ;  and  in  those  who  flee  from  it,  it  is 
lust  and  not  reason  that  makes  them  flee.  .  .  . 

"The  conditions  under  which  it  is  easiest  to  live 
according  to  the  world,  are  the  most  difficult  for  living 
according  to  God,  and  vice  versa.  Nothing  is  so 
difficult  according  to  the  world  as  the  religious  life ;  no 
life  is  more  easy  according  to  God.  Nothing  is  easier 
according  to  the  world  than  to  occupy  a  great  position 
and  to  have  great  wealth ;  nothing  according  to  God 
is  more  difficult  than  to  live  in  such  circumstances 
without  being  moulded  by  them. 

"  As  the  two  sources  of  our  sins  are  pride  and  sloth, 
God  has  discovered  to  us  two  qualities  in  Himself  to 
heal  them :  His  mercy  and  His  justice.  The  property 
of  justice  is  to  humble  pride.  However  holy  men's 
works  may  be,  they  are  taught  to  say :  '  Enter  not 
into  judgment ' ;  and  the  property  of  mercy  is  to  combat 
sloth  by  promoting  to  good  works,  according  to  the 
passage,  'the  goodness  of  God  leadeth  thee  to  repent- 
ance' (Rom.  ii.  4);  and  this  other  of  the  Ninevites: 
'  Who  knoweth  whether  God  will  not  turn  and  repent, 
and  turn  away  from  His  fierce  anger,  that  we  perish 
not  ? '  (Jonah  iii.  9).  And  thus  so  far  is  it  from  being 
the  case  that  mercy  encourages  laxness,  that,  on  the 
contrary,  it  is  the  quality  that  directly  opposes  it ;  so 
that,  instead  of  saying :  If  there  were  no  mercy  in  God, 
it  would  be  necessary  to  make  all  sorts  of  efforts  in  the 


THE  THOUGHTS  217 

way  of  virtue,  we  should  say,  on  the  contrary,  that  it 
is  because  there  is  mercy  in  God  that  we  should  make 
all  kinds  of  efforts."  The  reader  will  remember  that 
this  thought  occurs  more  than  once  in  Pascal.  Spinoza 
also  speaks  of  Pride  and  Sloth  as  the  sources  of  all  evil. 
As  he  died  eight  years  after  the  publication  of  the 
Thoughts  (1677),  it  is  hardly  likely  that  he  derived 
the  idea  from  Pascal. 

"People  say  a  miracle  would  strengthen  my  faith. 
So  they  say  when  they  do  not  see  one.  The  reasons 
which,  being  seen  from  a  distance,  appear  to  bound  our 
view  .  .  .  but  when  we  reach  that  point  we  begin  to 
look  beyond  it."  It  has  been  thought  that  there  is  a 
reference  here  to  those  who  refused  to  accept  the 
evidence  of  the  "  holy  thorn  "  in  favour  of  Port  Royal ; 
but  the  remark  is  of  universal  application. 

"There  are  three  means  of  believing:  Reason, 
Custom,  and  Inspiration.  The  Christian  religion,  which 
alone  has  reason,  does  not  acknowledge  as  its  true 
children  those  who  believe  without  inspiration;  and 
this  is  not  because  it  excludes  reason  and  custom. 
The  contrary  is  the  truth.  The  mind  must  be  opened 
to  proofs,  must  be  confirmed  by  custom,  and  lay  itself 
open,  by  humiliation,  to  inspirations  which  alone  can 
work  a  true  and  salutary  effect,  'lest  the  cross  of 
Christ  should  be  made  void '  (1  Cor.  i.  17). 

"There  are  only  three  sorts  of  persons:  those  who 
serve  God,  having  found  Him;  those  who  employ 
themselves  in  seeking  Him,  not  having  found  Him; 
and  those  who  have  not  found  Him  and  do  not  seek 
Him.  The  first  are  reasonable  and  happy;  the  last 
are  foolish  and  unhappy ;  those  between  are  unhappy 
and  reasonable.  . 


2i  8  PASCAL 

"  If  there  is  a  God,  we  should  love  only  Him  and 
not  the  transient  creatures.  The  reasoning  of  the 
impious,  in  the  Wisdom,  is  founded  only  on  the 
assumption  that  there  is  no  God.  This  granted, 
he  says,  let  us  enjoy  the  creature.  It  is  our  last 
resort.  But  if  there  were  a  God  to  love,  he  would  not 
have  come  to  this  conclusion,  but  quite  the  contrary. 
And  this  is  the  conclusion  of  the  wise:  There  is  a 
God,  let  us  not  then  enjoy  the  creature.  Everything, 
therefore,  which  induces  us  to  attach  ourselves  to  the 
creature  is  evil,  for  that  hinders  us  either  from  serving 
God,  if  we  know  Him,  or  from  seeking  Him,  if  we 
know  Him  not.  Now  we  are  full  of  concupiscence ; 
therefore  we  are  full  of  evil;  therefore  we  ought  to 
hate  ourselves  and  everything  which  provokes  us  to 
any  other  attachment  than  God  alone.  .  .  . 

"In  order  to  regulate  the  love  which  we  owe  to 
ourselves,  we  must  imagine  a  body  full  of  thinking 
members,  for  we  are  members  of  the  whole  body,  and 
see  how  each  member  ought  to  love  itself,  etc. 

"  If  the  feet  and  the  hands  had  a  particular  will, 
they  would  never  be  in  order  except  in  submitting 
this  particular  will  to  the  first  will  which  governs  the 
whole  body.  Apart  from  this  they  are  in  disorder  and 
misfortune ;  but  in  willing  only  the  good  of  the  body 
they  procure  their  own  good.  .  .  . 

"  God  regards  only  the  interior ;  the  Church  judges 
only  by  the  exterior.  God  absolves  as  soon  as  He  sees 
penitence  in  the  heart ;  the  Church  when  she  sees  it  in 
the  works.  God  wills  to  make  a  Church  which  is  pure 
within,  which  confounds,  by  its  internal  and  its  entirely 
spiritual  holiness,  the  internal  impiety  of  proud  sages  and 
Pharisees ;  and  the  Church  wills  to  make  an  assembly 


THE  THOUGHTS  219 

of  men  whose  external  manners  shall  be  so  pure  as 
to  confound  the  manners  of  the  heathen.  If  there 
are  hypocrites  among  them,  but  so  well  disguised  that 
she  does  not  discover  their  venom,  she  tolerates  them ; 
for,  although  they  are  not  received  by  God,  whom  they 
cannot  deceive,  they  are  by  men  whom  they  do 
deceive.  And  thus  she  is  not  dishonoured  by  their 
conduct,  which  appears  holy.  But  you  want  the 
Church  to  judge  neither  of  the  interior,  because  that 
belongs  only  to  God,  nor  of  the  exterior,  because  God 
stays  only  at  the  interior;  and  thus,  taking  away 
from  her  all  choice  of  men,  you  retain  in  the  Church 
the  most  dissolute,  and  those  who  dishonour  her  so 
grievously,  that  the  synagogues  of  the  Jews  and 
sects  of  philosophers  would  have  banished  them  as  un- 
worthy, and  would  have  abhorred  them  as  impious.  .  .  . 
"  All  great  amusements  are  dangerous  to  the  Chris- 
tian life ;  but  among  all  that  the  world  has  invented, 
there  is  none  which  is  more  to  be  feared  than  the 
theatre.1  It  is  a  representation  of  the  passions  so 
natural  and  so  delicate,  that  it  rouses  them  and  gives 
birth  to  them  in  our  hearts,  and,  above  all,  the  passion 
of  love,  principally  when  it  is  represented  as  thoroughly 
chaste  and  virtuous.  For  the  more  innocent  it  appears 
to  innocent  souls,  the  more  they  are  capable  of  being 
affected  by  it.  Its  violence  pleases  our  self-love,  which 
immediately  forms  a  desire  to  produce  the  same  effects 
which  are  seen  so  well  represented ;  and  at  the  same 
time  we  make  ourselves  a  conscience  founded  on  the 
virtuous  character  of  the  sentiments  which  we  see 
there,  by  which  the  fear  of  pure  souls  is  removed, 

1  Pascal  uses  the  word  Comtdie,  but  evidently  refers  to  all  theatrical 
representations. 


220  PASCAL 

since  they  imagine  that  there  is  no  hurt  to  purity  in 
loving  with  a  love  which  seems  to  them  so  reason- 
able. Thus  we  leave  the  theatre  with  our  heart  so 
filled  with  all  the  beauties  and  all  the  delights  of  love, 
and  the  soul  and  spirit  so  persuaded  of  its  innocence, 
that  we  are  quite  prepared  to  receive  its  first  impres- 
sions, or  rather  to  seek  an  opportunity  of  awakening 
them  in  the  heart  of  another,  in  order  to  receive  the 
same  pleasures  and  the  same  sacrifices  which  we  have 
seen  so  well  depicted  in  the  theatre." 

The  passage  already  noted  in  connection  with  the 
Provincial  Letters  occurs  in  this  place,  and  may  here 
be  given  in  its  entirety :  "  If  my  letters  are  condemned 
at  Rome,  that  which  I  condemn  in  them  is  condemned 
in  heaven :  Ad  tuum,  Domine  Jesu,  tribunal  appello. 
You  yourself  [probably  the  Pope]  are  corruptible.  I 
feared  that  I  might  have  written  amiss,  seeing  myself 
condemned ;  but  the  example  of  so  many  pious  writings 
made  me  believe  the  reverse.  It  is  no  longer  permitted 
to  us  to  write  well,  to  such  an  extent  is  the  Inquisition 
corrupt  or  ignorant. 

"  It  is  better  to  obey  God  than  men. 

"  I  fear  nothing,  I  hope  for  nothing.  It  is  not  so 
with  the  bishops.  Port  Royal  fears,  and  it  is  bad 
policy  to  disperse  them ;  for  they  will  fear  no  longer, 
and  they  will  make  themselves  more  feared.  I  do  not 
fear  even  your  censures  [perhaps  that  on  Arnauld],  if 
they  are  not  founded  on  those  of  tradition.  Do  you 
censure  everything  ?  What !  Even  my  respect  ?  No. 
Say  then  what,  or  you  will  do  nothing,  if  you  do  not 
point  out  the  evil,  and  why  it  is  evil.  And  this  is 
what  they  will  have  much  difficulty  in  doing. 

"  I  love  poverty  because  He  loved  it.    I  love  property 


THE  THOUGHTS  221 

because  it  affords  the  means  of  assisting  the  miserable. 
I  preserve  fidelity  to  all.  I  do  not  return  evil  to  those 
who  do  me  evil ;  but  I  wish  them  a  condition  similar 
to  my  own,  in  which  one  receives  neither  good  nor  evil 
from  men.  I  endeavour  to  be  just,  truthful,  sincere, 
and  faithful  to  all  men,  and  I  have  a  tenderness  of 
heart  for  those  to  whom  God  has  united  me  more 
closely  .  .  .  and  whether  I  am  alone  or  in  the  sight  of 
men,  I  have  in  all  my  actions  a  sense  of  the  presence 
of  God  who  shall  judge  them,  and  to  whom  I  have 
consecrated  all.  These  are  my  sentiments ;  and  every 
day  of  my  life  I  bless  my  Redeemer,  who  has  im- 
planted them  in  me,  and  who,  of  a  man  full  of  weak- 
nesses, of  miseries,  of  concupiscence,  of  pride,  and  of 
ambition,  has  made  a  man  exempt  from  all  these 
evils  by  the  power  of  His  grace  to  which  all  the 
glory  is  due,  since  from  myself  I  have  only  misery 
and  error. 

"Nature  has  some  perfections,  to  show  that  it  is 
the  image  of  God,  and  some  defects,  to  show  that  it  is 
only  His  image. 

"  Man  is  not  worthy  of  God,  but  he  is  not  incapable 
of  being  made  worthy  of  Him.  It  is  unworthy  of 
God  to  join  Himself  to  miserable  man;  but  it  is  not 
unworthy  of  God  to  take  him  out  of  his  misery. 

"  Eloquence  is  an  art  of  saying  things  in  such  a 
manner  —  (1)  that  those  to  whom  we  speak  may 
understand  them  without  difficulty  and  with  pleasure ; 
(2)  that  they  may  feel  themselves  interested,  so  that 
their  self-love  may  lead  them  more  willingly  to  re- 
flection. It  consists,  then,  in  a  correspondence  which 
we  endeavour  to  establish  between  the  mind  and  the 
heart  of  those  to  whom  we  speak  on  the  one  side, 


222  PASCAL 

and,  on  the  other,  between  our  thoughts  and  the  ex- 
pressions of  which  we  make  use ;  and  this  takes  for 
granted  that  we  have  studied  well  the  heart  of  man 
so  as  to  know  all  its  powers,  and  then  to  find  the 
just  proportions  of  the  discourse  which  we  wish  to 
adapt  to  them.  We  must  put  ourselves  in  the  place 
of  those  who  are  to  hear  us,  and  make  experiment 
on  our  own  hearts  of  the  turn  which  we  give  to  our 
discourse,  in  order  to  see  if  the  one  is  made  for  the 
other,  and  if  we  can  assure  ourselves  that  the  hearer 
will  be,  as  it  were,  forced  to  yield.  We  ought  to  restrict 
ourselves,  as  much  as  possible,  to  the  simple  and 
natural,  and  not  make  great  that  which  is  little,  nor 
little  that  which  is  great.  It  is  not  enough  that  a 
thing  be  beautiful,  it  must  be  appropriate  to  the  sub- 
ject, so  that  there  may  be  nothing  in  excess  and 
nothing  lacking. 

"Atheists  ought  to  say  things  which  are  perfectly  clear. 
Now,  it  is  not  perfectly  clear  that  the  soul  is  material. 

"Unbelievers  the  most  credulous.  They  believe 
the  miracles  of  Vespasian  in  order  not  to  believe 
those  of  Moses." 


Thoughts  published  since  1842 

"  The  ordinary  world  have  the  power  not  to  think  of 
that  which  they  do  not  want  to  think  about.  Do  not 
think  of  the  passages  of  the  Messiah,  said  the  Jew 
to  his  son.  Thus  do  ours  often.  Thus  are  false  re- 
ligions preserved,  and  even  the  true  in  regard  to  many 
persons.  But  there  are  some  who  have  not  the  power 
of  thus  preventing  themselves  from  thinking,  and  who 
think  the  more  from  being  forbidden  to  think.  Such 


THE  THOUGHTS  223 

persons  get  rid  of  false  religions  and  even  of  the  true, 
if  they  find  no  solid  proofs  of  it. 

"Nothing  is  so  insupportable  to  man  as  to  be  in 
complete  repose,  without  passions,  without  business, 
without  amusement,  without  application.  He  then 
feels  his  nothingness,  his  abandonment,  his  insufficiency, 
his  dependence,  his  impotence,  his  emptiness.  Imme- 
diately there  will  issue  from  the  depths  of  his  soul 
weariness,  darkness,  sadness,  chagrin,  vexation,  despair. 

"I  regard  Jesus  Christ  in  all  persons  and  in  our- 
selves. Jesus  Christ  as  Father  in  His  Father,  Jesus 
Christ  as  Brother  in  His  brethren,  Jesus  Christ  as  poor 
in  the  poor,  Jesus  Christ  as  rich  in  the  rich,  Jesus 
Christ  as  teacher  and  priest  in  the  priests,  Jesus  Christ 
as  sovereign  in  the  princes,  etc.  For  being  God,  all 
that  He  has  that  is  great  is  by  His  glory,  and  it  is 
by  His  mortal  life  that  He  has  whatever  is  mean  and 
abject  in  Him.  For  this  He  has  taken  this  unhappy 
condition,  so  as  to  be  able  to  be  in  all  persons,  and  a 
model  of  all  conditions. 

"  Fear  death  out  of  danger,  and  not  in  danger,  for 
one  must  be  a  man. 

"  The  Eternal  Being  is  always  if  He  is  once. 

"  We  implore  the  mercy  of  God,  not  that  He  may 
leave  us  in  peace  in  our  vices,  but  that  He  may  deliver 
us  from  them." 


The  Pyrrhonism  of  Pascal 

It  may  be  well  to  add  here  a  few  words  on  what  has 
been  called  the  Pyrrhonism  or  Scepticism  of  Pascal. 
And  a  few  words  may  suffice  for  two  reasons.  In  the 
first  place,  it  would  be  impossible  to  treat  the  subject 


224  PASCAL 

here  exhaustively ;  and,  in  the  second  place,  the  work 
has  been  done  so  ably  by  Victor  Cousin  and  Alexander 
Vinet  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  add  anything  to  what 
they  have  said  so  well. 

Different  views  have  been  taken  of  this  subject, 
some  writers  denying  altogether  the  appropriateness 
of  the  phrase  in  reference  to  Pascal,  others  maintaining 
that  whilst  he  could  not  be  called  a  religious  sceptic, 
he  might  properly  be  so  termed  in  the  philosophical 
sense,  whilst  others  have  gone  so  far  as  to  declare  that 
he  might  be  called  an  atheist ! 

The  absurdity  of  this  last  statement  need  hardly  be 
insisted  upon.  Not  only  is  an  atheist  not  a  sceptic, 
but  no  reader  of  Pascal  s  writings  can  fail  to  recog- 
nise the  fact  that  he  was,  in  the  deepest  sense  of  the 
words,  a  devout  Christian.  There  is,  however,  more 
reason  for  classing  him  among  philosophical  sceptics, 
since  he  did  most  certainly  deny  the  possibility  of 
arriving  at  religious  truth  by  the  mere  exercise  of 
reason. 

Let  us  glance  for  a  moment  at  some  of  his  own 
statements,  and  then  we  shall  perhaps  be  better  able 
to  understand  his  meaning.  In  one  place1  we  have 
the  following:  "Pyrrhonism  is  the  truth;  for,  after 
all,  men  before  Jesus  Christ  did  not  know  where  they 
were,  nor  whether  they  were  great  or  small.  And 
those  who  have  said  the  one  or  the  other,  knew  nothing 
of  it,  and  divined  without  reason  and  by  chance ;  they 
even  erred  always  in  excluding  the  one  or  the  other. 
Quod  ergo  ignorantes  quceritis,  religio  annuntiat 
vobis" 

Again : 2  "  All  their  principles  are  true,  those  of  the 
1  Havet,  Article  xxiv.,  Fragment  1.  2  xxv.  29. 


THE  THOUGHTS  225 

Pyrrhonists,  of  the  Stoics,  of  the  atheists,  etc.  But 
their  conclusions  are  false,  because  the  opposite  prin- 
ciples are  also  true." 

On  this  section  M.  Havet  remarks:  "Man  is  in- 
capable of  knowing  with  certainty  (i.  1);  this  is  the 
principle  of  the  Pyrrhonists ;  and,  according  to  Pascal, 
this  principle  is  true.  But  man  is  equally  incapable 
of  absolute  ignorance.  This  is  the  opposite  principle, 
and  it  is  also  true  (cf.  viii.  1).  In  the  same  way 
the  Stoical  principle  is  true,  that  man  is  essentially 
rational,  and  that  order  is  his  law.  But  the  opposite 
principle  is  also  true,  that  man  is  essentially  animal, 
and  that  pleasure  is  his  law.  The  principle  of  the 
atheists  is  true,  that  the  evil  which  is  in  man  and  in 
nature  testifies  that  the  world  does  not  obey  a  divine 
will.  According  to  Pascal,  the  reconciliation  of  all 
these  contradictions  is  found  in  Original  Sin.  Man 
was  made  for  the  knowledge  of  the  true  and  for  the 
practice  of  the  good ;  but  he  has  fallen  and  has  been 
given  over  to  ignorance  and  to  evil.  The  hand  of  God 
the  Creator  was  on  man  and  on  the  world;  but  by 
consequence  of  original  sin,  God  has  withdrawn  Him- 
self, and  His  elect  alone  find  Him  again." 

To  this  two  remarks  may  be  added.  In  the  first 
place,  Pascal  evidently  has  often  in  his  mind  the 
ontological  argument  of  Descartes  for  the  being  of 
God ;  and  finding  this  unsatisfactory,  he  declares  that  . 
Reason  does  not  possess  the  authority  which  his  con- 
temporary attributes  to  it.  It  was  a  time  of  breaking 
ground,  and  neither  Pascal  nor  Descartes  need  be 
blamed  because  the  problem  was  not  yet  clear,  much 
less  its  complete  solution.  Since  those  days,  and  since 
the  time  of  Kant,  the  ontological  argument  has  been 


226  PASCAL 

so  stated  as  to  be  divested  of  the  difficulties  by  which 
it  was  formerly  surrounded. 

But  Pascal  was  surely  right  when  he  held  that  men 
never  had  discovered  the  true  nature  of  God  without 
the  aid  of  a  supernatural  revelation ;  and  here  at  least 
he  had  the  authority  of  St.  Paul:  "The  world  by 
wisdom  knew  not  God"  (1  Cor.  i.  21);  and  of  a  greater 
than  St.  Paul:  "No  one  knoweth  the  Son  save  the 
Father ;  neither  doth  any  know  the  Father,  save  the 
Son,  and  he  to  whomsoever  the  Son  willeth  to  reveal 
Him  "  (Matt.  xi.  27). 


CHAPTER   VIII 
DESTRUCTION  OF  PORT  ROYAL 

THERE  are  few  sadder  episodes  in  the  history  of  any 
great  people  than  the  story  of  the  later  years  of 
Louis  xiv.  The  greatness  of  this  age  has  often  been 
dwelt  upon ;  but  too  often  it  has  been  forgotten  that 
the  glory  of  the  age  of  Louis  xiv.  belonged  to  its 
earlier  history,  before  the  destruction  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty  had  produced  the  effects  which  uni- 
versally result  from  such  antecedents.  To  the  latter 
part  of  the  seventeenth  century  belonged  two  crimes 
of  the  darkest  character,  from  which  it  may  be  truly 
said  that  France  has  never  recovered — the  Revoca- 
tion of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  and  the  destruction  of 
Port  Royal.  In  both  cases  the  Government — that 
is  to  say,  the  King  —  was  influenced  by  the  same 
sentiment,  the  determination  to  bring  about  unity  of 
religious  belief  and  practice,  and  the  destruction  of 
heresy. 

Undoubtedly  Louis  xiv.  was  induced  to  believe  that 
Port  Royal  was  heretical ;  and  it  may  be  well  to  glance 
back  over  the  history  which  has  been  partially  told  in 
the  preceding  pages.  The  ruin  of  Port  Royal  was 
certainly  brought  about  by  the  enmity  of  the  Jesuits ; 
and  this  enmity  proceeded  from  causes  partly  of  a 

227 


228  PASCAL 

doctrinal  character,  partly  personal.  As  has  been 
already  remarked,  the  original  sin  of  the  Arnaulds,  the 
great  upholders  of  Port  Royal,  had  been  the  line  taken 
by  the  grandfather  of  the  Mere  Angelique  in  gaining  a 
suit  against  the  Jesuits.  But  this  offence  might  have 
been  forgotten  but  for  the  prominent  part  taken  by 
the  family  in  the  defence  of  St.  Cyran,  and  so  of 
Jansenism.  Whether  the  Jesuits  have  been  rightly 
charged  with  Pelagianism  or  not,  at  least  they  were 
the  vehement  opponents  of  Augustinian  doctrine  as 
taught  by  Jansenius. 

But  this  was  not  all.  The  Jansenists  were  noted 
for  their  high  code  of  morals  and  their  indisposition 
to  relax  the  demands  of  the  gospel  in  the  manner 
often  charged  against  the  Jesuits.  This  was  specially 
brought  forward  in  Arnauld's  Treatise  on  Frequent 
Communion,  in  which  he  insisted  upon  the  necessity 
of  such  repentance  as  led  to  newness  of  life,  in  which 
the  love  of  God  had  part.  We  have  seen  how  Pascal 
attacked  the  adversaries  of  the  Jansenists  in  the  Pro- 
vincials. In  addition  to  these  differences,  the  success 
of  the  schools  of  Port  Royal  gave  great  offence  to  the 
Jesuits,  who  gave  much  attention  to  the  work  of 
education  in  their  own  way. 

We  have  seen  how  the  condemnation  of  the  five 
propositions,  professedly  taken  from  the  writings  of 
Jansenius,  was  brought  about.  This  was  done  by 
Pope  Innocent  in  1653 ;  and  in  1656  Arnauld  was 
expelled  by  the  Sorbonne,  and  with  his  friends  had  to 
go  into  hiding.  Soon  afterwards  the  Jesuits  obtained 
an  order  from  Government  to  abolish  the  "little  schools" 
of  Port  Royal.  A  slight  check  was  put  upon  the 
hostile  endeavours  of  their  adversaries  by  the  "miracle" 


DESTRUCTION  OF  PORT  ROYAL     229 

of  the  Holy  Thorn  in  1656  ;  but  this  was  of  short 
duration. 

The  first  demand  made  upon  Port  Royal  was  that 
its  members  should  condemn  the  five  propositions,  which 
they  did.  But  this  did  not  satisfy  their  enemies,  who 
caused  a  second  formulary  to  be  drawn  up,  in  which 
the  propositions  were  declared  to  contain  the  doctrine 
taught  by  Jansenius.  The  nuns  protested  their  in- 
ability to  judge  of  the  contents  of  a  voluminous  work 
in  Latin  which  they  could  not  read,  and  refused  to 
comply  with  the  demand.  As  a  consequence,  the  little 
schools  were  broken  up,  the  novices  and  scholars  were 
expelled  from  Port  Royal  des  Champs,  and  the  directors 
and  confessors  banished.  In  this  same  year  (6th  August 
1661)  the  Mere  Angelique  died.  It  was  a  true  testi- 
mony which  was  borne  of  her,  "  She  united  a  profound 
humility  to  a  sublime  genius." 

The  Mere  Angelique  had  expressed  the  belief  that 
her  death  might  end  the  persecution  of  the  community ; 
it  was  rather  the  beginning  than  the  end.  The  nuns 
remained  "  contumacious,"  either  'refusing  to  sign  the 
formulary,  or  signing  it  only  with  an  explanation.  The 
signing  probably  cost  the  life  of  Jacqueline  Pascal. 
"  Her  health,"  says  Madame  Perier,  her  sister,  "  was  so 
shaken  by  all  this  business  that  she  fell  dangerously 
ill,  and  died  soon  after."  It  was  a  fulfilment  of  the 
language  of  Madame  de  Gue"menee  to  the  King's 
Jesuit  Confessor,  whom  she  was  vainly  endavouring 
to  soften  towards  Port  Royal :  "  The  King  makes 
princes  of  the  blood,  he  makes  archbishops  and 
bishops,  and  he  will  make  martyrs  likewise."  In 
1664  both  houses  were  laid  under  interdict.  In 
May  1666  de  Saci  was  arrested  and  sent  to  the 


230  PASCAL 

Bastille,  where  he  completed  the  revision  of  his  trans- 
lation of  the  Bible  (1668). 

In  1669  Clement  ix.,  a  man  of  peaceful  disposition, 
issued  a  Brief  of  reconciliation,  known  as  the  Pacifica- 
tion of  Clement  IX.  A  great  change  instantly  took 
place.  Arnauld  was  received  at  Court ;  de  Saci  re- 
sumed his  place  as  Confessor  and  Director  at  Port 
Royal.  The  recluses  returned,  and  the  nuns  were  re- 
leased from  their  confinement.  It  was  a  time  of 
prosperity  and  happiness  for  the  society  at  Port  Royal. 
One  great  drawback,  indeed,  must  be  noted:  Port 
Royal  of  Paris  was  separated  from  the  mother  house 
and  placed  under  Jesuit  management  (1669).  The 
nuns  of  Port  Royal  des  Champs  were  allowed  to 
receive  pupils,  but  not  to  add  any  more  to  their  own 
number. 

The  relief  afforded  by  the  peace  of  Clement  ix.  was 
not  to  be  of  long  duration.  Again  the  nuns  were 
required  to  affirm  the  condemnation  of  Jansenius  and 
his  doctrine.  This  had  been  the  stumbling-block  of 
Port  Royal  for  many  years.  It  had  killed  Jacque- 
line Pascal.  It  may  have  hastened  the  death  of  her 
brother,  who  died  in  the  following  year,  aged  thirty- 
nine.  As  we  have  said,  the  respite  was  but  momentary. 
In  1679  the  death  of  Madame  de  Longueville,  a  near 
relative  of  the  King  and  a  devoted  friend  of  Port  Royal, 
was  the  occasion  for  the  renewal  of  hostilities.  The  re- 
cluses received  an  order  from  the  Government  to  leave 
Port  Royal  at  once.  Many  of  them  died  in  exile  and  in 
want.  The  nuns,  deprived  of  their  protectors,  were 
exposed  to  cruel  persecutions,  forbidden  to  receive 
either  novices  or  scholars,  and  deprived  of  the  slender 
endowments  by  which  they  were  maintained.  The 


DESTRUCTION  OF  PORT  ROYAL     231 

year  1684  saw  the  death  of  de  Saci,  who,  from  his 
retreat,  had  watched  over  and  guided  the  society  at 
Port  Royal. 

Papal  Bulls  issued  in  the  years  1705  and  1708  ordered 
the  suppression  of  Port  Royal  des  Champs,  and  the 
transference  of  the  property  to  Port  Royal  de  Paris. 
In  the  following  year  (1709)  the  Cardinal  de  Noailles, 
archbishop  of  Paris,  most  reluctantly,  but  constrained 
by  Court  influence,  issued  the  decree  for  the  extinction 
of  the  monastery  of  Port  Royal  des  Champs,  whilst 
the  destruction  of  the  buildings  was  ordered  by  the 
Council. 

It  is  a  sickening  story  which  tells  of  the  expulsion 
of  the  nuns  in  cold  and  inclement  weather,  with  the 
shortest  notice  and  in  the  harshest  manner.  Some 
of  them  were  old  and  infirm,  yet  no  time  was  allowed 
them  to  make  preparation  for  their  departure.  One 
fainted,  another  who  had  been  bled  the  day  before  felt 
the  bleeding  return;  but  it  was  with  difficulty  that 
they  received  the  slightest  consideration  from  the 
officer  who  was  commissioned  to  expel  them. 

The  expulsion  of  the  nuns  was  followed  by  the  de- 
struction of  the  monastery,  which  was  carried  out  in 
the  following  year  (1711);  and  this  again  was  followed 
by  the  demolition  of  the  church,  and,  finally,  by  the 
exhumation  of  the  bodies  to  the  number  of  nearly 
three  thousand.  Who  can  deny  that  this  work  was 
a  hideous  crime  ?  Who  can  fail  to  discern  the  terrible 
reckoning  exacted  of  the  Church  of  France  in  the  not 
distant  future?  It  was  not  the  Port  Royalists  who 
were  the  chief  sufferers,  it  was  the  Church  and  nation 
of  France.  The  words  of  the  wise  man  are  seldom 
more  applicable  than  to  these  victims  of  a  cruel  and 


232  PASCAL 

wicked  persecution :  "  The  souls  of  the  righteous  are 
in  the  hand  of  God,  and  there  shall  no  torment  touch 
them.  In  the  sight  of  the  unwise  they  seemed  to  die ; 
and  their  departure  is  taken  for  misery,  and  their 
going  from  us  to  be  utter  destruction ;  but  they  are  in 
peace.  For,  though  they  be  punished  in  the  sight  of 
men,  yet  is  their  hope  full  of  immortality." 


INDEX 


ACADEMY  of  sciences,  6. 
Antiquity,  meaning  of,  28. 
Arnauld,  Agnes,  58. 
Arnauld,      Antoine     (M.      de     la 

Mothe),  2,  58. 

Arnauld,  Antoine  (the  great),  58. 
Arnauld,    Jacqueline   Marie  (Mere 

Angelique),  58  ;  conversion,  59  ; 

reform   of  convent,    59 ;    death, 

229. 

BELIEF,  three  means  of,  218. 
Bellay,  Bishop  of  (Camus),  35. 
Brewster,    Sir    David,   account  of 

experiment  on    Puy    de   Dome. 

17  ff. 

CONVERSION,  first,  33 ;  second,  53. 
Cycloid,  treatise  on,  25. 

DESCARTES,   P.    and,    7,    22,    23, 
177. 

EPICTETUS,  48,  68,  188. 
Escobar,  moral  theology  of,  121. 
Experiments    in     Paris    and    Au- 
vergne,  17. 

FLUIDS,  equilibrium  of,  24. 
Forton,  persecution  of,  34  ff. 
Frangois,  St.,  de  Sales,  80  ff. 


GRANGES,    Les,    convent 
Solitaries,  66. 
16 


of    the 


HEALTH  of  Pascal,  36  ff. 
Holy  Thorn,  127,  139. 

JANSENIUS,  professor  at  Louvain, 
bishop  of  Ypres,  friend  of 
Arnauld,  61  ;  student  of  St. 
Augustine,  75;  his  Augustinm, 
75  ;  Five  Propositions  from  his 
writings  condemned,  76  ff. 

Jansenist  influence,  33,  39. 

Jesuits,  quarrels  with,  21  ;  moral 
theology  of,  121. 

LOVE,  Pascal  on,  48. 

MAN  a  reed,  176. 
Maynard,  Abbe",  on  Pascal,  119. 
Mere  Angelique.     See  Arnauld. 
Miracle  of  Holy  Thorn,  127,  139. 
Montaigne,  48,  68,  189. 

NATURE  abhors  a  vacuum,  13. 
Noel,  F.,  dispute  with  P.,  14. 

OLD  TESTAMENT,  types  in,  207. 

PASCAL,  Blaise,  birth,  1  ;  educa- 
tion, 2 ;  mathematical  genius, 
3  ;  discovery  in  geometry,  5  ; 
conic  sections,  7 ;  removal  to 
Paris,  8  ;  discoveries  in  physics, 
13,  14,  16  ff.  ;  reproaches,  21  ; 
P.  and  Descartes,  22  ff.  ;  religion 
and  science,  27  ;  view  of  anti- 


234 


INDEX 


quity,  28 ;  religious  life,  32 ; 
first  conversion,  33 ;  bad  health, 
36  ;  friends  (Duke  of  Roannez 
and  others),  41,  47;  death  of 
father,  42  ;  P.  and  sister  Jacque- 
line, 33,  45,  46,  52  ;  on  Epictetus 
and  Montaigne,  48,  68  ff.  ; 
second  conversion,  54;  "Amu- 
let," 55 ;  P.  and  Port  Royal, 

64  ff.  ;    with  Solitaries    at    Les 
Granges,  66;    Provincial  Letters 
(see) ;   on  conversion  of  the  sin- 
ner, 67  ;  later  years,  138  ;  char- 
acter, 154  ;  Thoughts  (see). 

Pascal,  Etienne,  position  and  mar- 
riage, 1  ;  removal  from  Clermont, 
2 ;  education  of  children,  2  ff., 
10 ;  removal  to  Paris,  2  ;  to 
Rouen,  9 ;  difficulty  with  Gover- 
ment ;  religious  life,  30  ;  Jan- 
senist  influence,  33 ;  return  to 
Paris,  39  ;  return  to  Auvergne, 
40 ;  death,  42. 

Pascal,  Gilberte  (Madame  Pe"rier), 
1  ;  her  Life  of  Pascal,  v  ;  account 
of  religious  influences,  30 ;  on 
youth  of  P.,  32. 

Pascal,  Jacqueline,  1 ;  on  Descartes' 
visit  to  P.,  22;  pleases  Riche- 
lieu, 9 ;  deeper  spiritual  life, 
44 ;  becomes  a  nun,  46 ;  letter 
to  her  sister,  52. 

Pessimism  of  Pascal,  162. 

Port  Royal,  origin,  57 ;  J.  M. 
(Mere  Angelique)  abbess,  59 ; 
reforms  convent,  59 ;  growth 
of,  60  ;  nuns  removed  to  Paris, 
convent  occupied  by  Solitaries, 

65  ;  schools  of,  66  ;   Pascal    ad- 
mitted, 66  ;  return  of  nuns,  66  ; 
Louis    xiv.    and    P.    R.,    227  ; 
required    to  condemn   the   Five 
Propositions,    229  ;  under  inter- 
dict, 229  ;   suppression  ordered, 
231  ;    expulsion   of  nuns,    231 ; 
destruction  of  buildings,  231. 

Pride  and  Sloth,  216. 

Probabilism,  116. 

Provincial  Letters,   Augustine  and 


Pelagius,    73 ;    controversy    be- 
tween Dominicans  and  Jesuits, 

74  ;  the  Augustinus  of  Jansenius, 

75  ;   the  Five  Propositions   con- 
demned,   76  ;     controversy    be- 
tween Arnauld  and  the  Jesuits, 
77  ;     Arnauld     condemned     by 
Sorbonne,    78  ;    Pascal  invoked, 
79 ;     Provincial    Letters    begin 
with    subject     of     grace,      82 ; 
Pascal's  irony,  83,  86,  88  ;  effect 
of  the  Provincials,  95  ;  judgment 
of  Voltaire,  96  ;   continuation  of 
controversy,      98 ;     censure     of 
Arnauld   by  Sorbonne,  102 ;   P. 
assails     the    casuistry     of    the 
Jesuits,  112 ;  fairness  of  Pascal, 
113 ;     testimony     of     Chateau- 
briand, 114  ;  attack  on  probabil- 
ism,    116 ;     moral    theology    of 
Escobar,  121  ;  P.'s  judgment  of 
P.  Letters,   130  ;   Latin  transla- 
tion, 136. 

Pyrrhonism  of  P.,  223. 

REBOURS  and  P.,  39  f. 
Religion  and  science,  28. 
Religious  impressions,  30  ff. 
Richelieu,  9,  63. 

Roannez,  Duke  of,  41,  47,  55,  158. 
Rouen,  Archbishop  of  (de  Harlay), 
35. 

ST.  CYKAN,  youth,  61  ;  friendship 
with  Jansenius,  61  ;  knowledge 
of  St.  Augustine,  61  ;  acquaint- 
ance with  Arnaulds,  62  ;  director 
of  Port  Royal,  62  ;  enmity  of 
Jesuits,  62 ;  and  of  Richelieu,  who 
puts  him  in  prison,  63 ;  estab- 
lishes a  male  community  in  con- 
nection with  Port  Royal,  64; 
death,  63. 

Singlin,  sermon  by,  53. 

THOUGHTS:  posthumous,  137;  pub- 
lished in  imperfect  form,  159  ; 
subsequent  additions,  162  ;  P.'s 
intention,  165 ;  substance  of 


INDEX 


235 


Thoughts,  170  ;  chief  subjects  : 
greatness  and  misery  of  man, 
172  ;  vanity  of  man,  the  effect 
of  self-love,  179 ;  weakness  of 
man — uncertainty  of  his  know- 
ledge, 182 ;  diversion,  184 ; 
certain  popular  opinions,  186 ; 
detached  moral  thoughts,  187  ; 
philosophy  and  literature,  190  ; 
contradictions  in  man,  191  ; 
necessity  of  studying  religion, 
193  ;  better  to  believe  when  we 
cannot  prove,  197  ;  nature  and 
marks  of  religion,  201 ;  impot- 


ence of  reason,  study  of  Scrip- 
tures, 205 ;  divine  concealing 
and  revealing,  209  ;  true  Chris- 
tians and  true  Jews  have  the 
same  religion,  211  ;  knowledge 
of  God  only  through  Christ,  211 ; 
thoughts  on  the  miracles,  213  ; 
miscellaneous  thoughts  on  re- 
ligion, 214. 
Torricelli's  experiments,  10. 

VINET    on    Provincials,     80  ;     on 

Thoughts,  165. 
Voltaire  on  Pascal,  96,  163. 


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